The Man of Sorrows: Being a Little Journey to the Home of Jesus of Nazareth

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427024 A

T^.rOR. LENOX AMD

1920 ^

Copyrif^t 1904-1905

by

ELBERT HTJBBABD

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THE MAN OF SORROWS

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray» believe that
ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
And when ye stand prajring, forgive, if ye have aught
against any : that yonr Father also which is in heaven
may forgive you your trespasses. Mark zi 24-25

The vice of our theology is seen in the claim that the
Bible is a closed book; that the age of inspiiation is past;
and that Jesus was something different firom a man.

EllIRSOIf

TO HIM THAT WAS CRUCIFIED

My spirit to youn, dear brother.

Do not mind because many sounding your name do not

understand you»
I do not sound your name, but I understand you,
I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and

to salute those who are with you, before and since,

and those to come also.
That we all labor together transmitting the same charge

and succession,
We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times.
We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all

theologies,
Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men.
We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject

not the disputers nor any thing that is asserted.
We hear the bawling and din, we are reach'd at by

divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side.
They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my

comrade.
Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journey-
ing up and down till we make our ineffaceable mark

upon time and the diverse eras.
Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women

of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers

as we are.

Walt WnmiAN

^HIS simple sketch seeks to be history J^ And
history is a branch of the science of Sociology.
Of miracle Sociology knows naught, any more
than does modem jurisprudence — ^the miraculous
would not now be admitted as evidence in any court in
Christendom. The test of innocence is no longer to walk
on red-hot iron, and the admissions of a witch or one
possessed by devils are referred to the trained nurse or
pathologist.

We seek the truth, and in so doing we believe we best
honor ourselves and our Maker.

History has nothing to do with miracle, any more than
has geology, astronomy or chemistry, and from these the
supernatural has been forever barred and banished. No
miracle has ever been proved — they all come to us at
second-hand, by people who saw people who said they
saw people who saw them. By no modem rules of evidence
can miracles be even considered where truth and justice
are sought. The miraculous strikes at the integrity of
Nature. To admit that a Supreme Being might interfere
with chemical law, would render science vain and learning
a delusion and folly.

Biology and history know nothing of ''the fall of man.*'
So far as we know, the race has risen constantly in general
well-being and intelligence. Man has fiillen upward.
When Napoleon ironically asked, ** What is history but
a lie agreed upon ? '* he had in mind that peculiar form
of history which believed ** there is a divinity which doth
hedge a king," and which has always been written with
the intent to uphold some man or institution. And for
this defense was the writer of such history paid. The men
who yet uphold the miraculous are those who gain a

:foretDorb

livelihood by so doing. Charles Bradlaiigh forever forced

the admission upon the courts of the civilized world that

the affirmation of a man who does not believe in the

miraculous is just as valuable as the oath of the man who

does J^ J^

The recompense of the historian is the approval of his

Inmost Self that he has endeavored to express the truth.

€( The reward for a good deed is to have done it.

Yet absolute historical truth is, perhaps, impossible.

Truth is a point of view. And so truth cannot be final nor

absolute nor binding upon all. The author of this sketch

claims nothing beyond the fact that for himself he has,

in degree, expressed the truth.

The task of the scientist is to construct the skeleton of a

mastodon from the fragment of a bone : and the task of

the historian is to take the scattered fragments of record,

legend, song, myth and fiible, and give us an accurate,

vivid picture of a passing procession. The historian is one

who resurrects the past and makes those long dead live

again.

The history of a country is only the biography of her great

men, and the history of Palestine — and we might say of

the entire Christian world — ^forever swings, like planets

'round a central sun, about the memory of the Man of

Sorrows.

References such as that of a miraculous star that appeared

in the East and guided certain wise men to the stable

where the young child lay, need not now be considered

seriously. The star was conjured forth by an astrologer

and not by an astronomer. Since Copernicus put the

astrologers out of the society of astronomers, stories of

:foretDOt)i iii

«<

vagrant stars, seen by a few, or sent as a sign,*' have
no place in science. When men believed that stars were
God's jewels, hung in the heavens by angels to amaae
men and magnify God's power in their sight, such stories
were not unusual. Even yet they surely have a place in
that great museum of strange and curious things in which
men, in civilisation's dawn, have implicitly believed.
Belief or disbelief in dryads, naiads, witches, ghosts, devils,
angels, gnomes, fairies, men with one parent, and women
with none, will not fix for us our place in eternity, and
should not ip society here and now.
Vagrant stars would do violence to astronomy ; the laws
of the Universe, un^Edling, unchanging, are the true
miracle, and not their capricious undoing to suit trivial
circumstances. The theology of the past, which admitted
the miraculous, limited God's power in that it made Him
subject to anger, whim, mood, notion and caprice.
He changeth not, and in Him there is no variableness
nor shadow of turning.

tS3)e Mm of ^omitD£(

HE town of Ntzuetb
where Jesus grew up
to manhood has now
about four thousand
people. At that time
it had, probably, but
half this number. It is
situated in a beautiful
fertile valley in Galilee
in the northern part of
Palestine j* There are
great towering mountains above and beyond,
green at the base, and growing roc^ and
rugged as you ascend ^ In this vicinity was
the home of the Shulamite maiden, of whom
Solomon sung. Solomon gives us glimpses of
this beautiful valley — the pomegranates and
the figs, the maize and the melons, the swaying
corn-flowers, the many-bued morning-glories
that clambered over the simple cottages, the
shepherds and their flocks, the kine on the
hills and the goats that leaped from rock to
rocki^ J*

Much of the country has now grown arid,
luid as the years have passed, Islam has left it
desolate. The giant cedars of Lebanon, that
once towored toward the sun and tossed their

branches in defiance to the stonn, are gone,
but even yet the gardens in the springtime are
firesh and green, and the foothills above the
town and the valleys below laugh in glee with
then- carpet of flowers.

On the west is Mount Carmel, that lifts a
jagged front against the sky, like a great stone
facer and in the early morning when the wind
blows in with messages from the sea, great white
clouds of mist reel and roll up the mountain
side like drunken giants. Down the valley one
catches glimpses of Endor where once lived a
terrible witch; beyond is Mount Tabor; to the
north is Mount Hermon, rich in story and
legend. To the south lies the desert of Judea,
desolate and wind-swept, and the rocky road
that winds in and out among the barren sands,
loses itself like a thread, on to Jerusalem, two
days' journey, or sixty miles away.
Above the town on the little plateau sleeps
Mary the mother of Jesus ; in a near-by tomb
rests the dust of Joseph the honest carpenter,
his foster-father, side by side with thousands
of simple Nazarenes who to us are nameless.
<(The square little stone houses, mostly of
one room, are there about as they were two
thousand years ago— the same narrow streets.

g^ jKten of S^nctoiM i«

the winding alleys where the brown, barefoot
children firolic, just as when the little son of
Mary played and romped, or wandered over
the grassy slopes, climbed the rugged rocks,
or waded in the little stream that the freshets
of summer transformed, to the delight of the
children, into a rushing torrent.
In Nazareth there is no court of fitshion, no
famed schools where scholars teach, no wealth
nor flaunting equipage. The synagogue is only
a barren stone structure, devoid of ornament,
somewhat larger than the largest of the houses.
C[ The poverty of the place, however, is more
apparent than real, for this, we must remember,
is a land where little is needed. Here there is
no struggle to maintain life, nor is there strife
for place and power. The winter is short and
not severe, and very much of the time the
entire family lives out of doors. The women
grind their com at the mills, milk their goats,
tend their gardens, look after the climbing
trumpet-flowers, and carry their tall jugs to the
public well. The men work at weaving, at
simple blacksmithing, carpentering ; mend the
stone walls, and now and then help in the
construction of a new house, built just like
the rest. There is plenty, for wants are few,

ij tE%t iHan of i^orrotp<

and in the evening, old men sit on the benches
of stone and gravely talk.
Around the memories of men of power, who
write their names large on history's page,
mjrth and legend weave their garlands in the
endeavor to add lustre to the fame that does
not need their aid, and ^ ^ seven towns struggle
for the honor of being their birthplace. "
The legend that Jesus was bom at Bethlehem
evolved into being many years after his death.
David was bom in this Judean village, and the
prophecy that when he was reincarnated he
would again be bom there, was made by the
Prophet Micah. The ** taxing" mentioned
occurred ten years after the death of Herod,
and both Matthew and Luke state that the
birth of Jesus took place during the reign of
Herod. Besides, in going to Jerusalem, Joseph
and Mary must pass out of their way to reach
Bethlehem — ^this town being directly south of
Jerusalem, while Nazareth is directly north*
<( In any event, the mere locality of a man*s
birth is not vital, and counts for little. All agree
that the stay at Bethlehem was very short,
and that Nazareth was the childhood home of
Jesus. During his life, and long afterward, he
was spoken of as '^ the Nazarene."

The Romans never issued any order to kill all
children under two years old. Such an order
at the time of Christ would have been as absurd
as if issued now in Canada. The Romans at
the time Christ was bom were sticklers for law ;
and Herod nor any other Roman governor
ever gave an order to kill children imder any
conditions.

The myths and legends of this man's birth
are 'bivial, childish and unimpcfftant.
The real questions that interest us are : Who
was this wonderiul and unselfish individual!
What did he strive to do?
What did he accomplish?
^■M^^HE parents of Jesus were simple,
^ ■ I earnest, and intelligent people —
A 1 1 neitho- rich nor poor, without titles,
^^^^^ position or proud pedigree.

Jesus nevo- called himself the
"Son of David," and the attempt to make
him the pretender to the Jewish Throne, by
giving him an unbroken pedigree from David,
was evidently worked out by sectarians who
did not believe in or had never heard of his
miraculous birth.

The line of David had died out centuries before,
and most of the men named by Matthew and

16 Wbt jWan of S^onofM

Luke as progenitors of Jesus, evidently never
had any existence outside of their own lively
imaginations. Matthew and Luke do not agree
in their records. Mark climbs the genealogical
tree to David and there stops, but Luke in
his zeal follows the line clear to Adam and
then to God, to prove its purity.
If Joseph had been the direct heir to the
Jewish Throne he doubtless would have known
it and told of it. In his community he would
have been a marked man. Neither the high
priests of Jewry, Herod, nor the rulers of
Rome knew of any lineal descendants of King
David, and none such could have escaped them
if they had existed. Besides this, the entire
Christian faith is built upon the declaration
that Joseph was not a blood relative of Jesus.
According to the record, Joseph was a simple,
honest, unpretentious man of middle age.
Before Joseph and Mary entered upon their
married life, Joseph discovered that Mary was
ere long to become a mother. It seems also that
Joseph was on the point of putting his wife
away, but something in his heart aroused his
better nature and he stood by the friendless
woman in spite of her disgrace. We have the
plain and imdisputed record that Joseph denied

being the father of Jesus. So we thus have

three propositions :

One : The declaration that Jesus had but one

parent.

Two : That Matthew and Luke, who gave a

royal line to Joseph, believed that Joseph was

the father of Jesus.

Three : The claim of Joseph that he was not

the £a.ther of Jesus, backed up by Mary herself,

and the presumption, therefore, that Mary had

some unknown lover.

From what we know of biology, and by the

exercise of our knowledge as rational beings,

we are compeUed to discard the hypothesis in

Number One.

In the light of the disavowal of both Joseph

and Mary, and the uncorroborated claim of

royal pedigree, we must also discard Number

Two as untenable.

This leaves only Number Three with which to

deal. And since Mary herself, the mother of

Jesus, corroborates Joseph in the statement

that Joseph was not his parent, we are forced

to assume that the father of her child was an

unknown lover of Mary who deserted her at

the critical moment, and thus forever forfeited

his claim on immortality.

Of all men who have blundered, no man ever
blundered more or worse. Oblivion now has
swallowed him, where otherwise he might
have worn a crown of glory.
When confronted and questioned, Mary would
not name her lover, but took refiige in the
niuve statement, ^^An angel visited me in a
dreaml "

It is the answer that loving woman has given
since time began r«^ No sweeter and more
touching reply was ever given by motherhood
when attacked by coarse, leering brutality:
^^An angel visited me in a dream." Beyond
this she would not speak. To her the matter
was sacred, and the hearts of all good men and
women, everywhere, must go out to her in
love and sympathy.

No judge, no jury, no lawyer can m the face
of the facts, say anything else than this :^^ We
do not know who was the father of Jesus.''
C[ However, the word *' illegitimate " is not
in God's vocabulary; but if its use is ever
admissible, it should be applied wholly to the
defective, the incompetent, the degenerate,
the non-cogibimd, and never to the brave, the
beautifrd, the radiant, the imselfish and the
intelligent. <( Says Ernst Haeckel :

The dogma of the immaciilate conception seems, perhaps,
to be less audacious and significant than the dogma of the
infallibility of the pope. Yet not only the Roman hierarchy,
but even some of the orthodox Protestants (the Evangelical
Alliance, for instance) attach great importance to this
thesis. What is known as the ** immaculate oath '* — ^that
is, the confirmation of fedth by an oath taken on the
immaculate conception of Mary — ^is still regarded by
millions of Christians as a sacred obligation. Comparative
and critical theology has recently shown that this myth
has no greater claim to originality than most of the other
stories in the Christian mythology ; it has been borrowed
from older religions, especially Buddhism. Similar mjrths
were widely circulated in India, Persia, Asia Minor, and
Greece several centuries before the birth of Christ.
Whenever a king's unwedded daughter, or some other
maid of high degree, gave birth to a child, the father was
always pronounced to be a god, or a demi-god ; in the
Christian case it was the Holy Ghost.
The special endowments of mind or body which often
distinguish these ''children of love" above the ordinary
offspring were thus partly explained by ''heredity."
Distinguished " sons of God " of this kind were held in
high esteem both in antiquity and during the Middle Ages,
while the moral code of modem civilization reproaches
them with their want of honorable parentage. This applies
even more forcibly to "daughters of God," though the poor
maidens are just as little to blame for their want of a father.
For the rest, every one who is familiar with the beautiful
mythology of classical antiquity knows that these sons
and daughters of the Greek and Roman gods often
approach nearest to the highest ideal of humanity.

tV 20 c^ jHaw of ^tattiimi

fLSUS had sisters who grew up and
were married at Nazareth. He also
had brothers. For them he had little
regard — family ties were nothing to
him. Like all men over whose birth
there is a cloud, he recognized only
the kinship of the spirit. So we hear of his
asking almost contemptuously » " Wlio is my
brother?" He had two cousins, sons of Mary
Cleophas, sister of his mother, who were very
much attached to him, and called themselves
"the brothers of our Lord." His earnest,
thoughtful ways set him apart from the rest
and he was regarded as strange and dificrent.
They did not understand >iiTn — they could not
— and evidently had little &ith in his unusual,
strai^e and pecuUar ways.
^..^^^^^^HE word Galilee means "mixed."
It was evidently so used because
of the extremely varied population
which inhabited the province.
There were Egyptians, Syrians,
Greeks and Jews — the latter being somewhat
in the m^ority. Many were reckoned as Jews
who had simply married into Jewish &milies;
for a Gentile to become a Jew, no particular
rite was required. The assumption is that Jesus

strai^e and

tKbe jWan of J^otttAosi 21

was a Jew by birth, yet of Mary's genealogy
we know nothing, and of course, we are also
ignorant of the unknown father of Jesus. That
Jesus did not have the fixed and idolatrous
regard for the Jewish Laws that the orthodox
Jew had, we know ftdl well. He quite often
disregarded the laws openly and encouraged
his disciples to do the same, spuming the old
rules, giving them commandments of his own
for their guidance.
Joseph treated the boy as his own, kindly and
gently, and brought him up to be usefiil ; to wait
on himself; to respect his elders and to do good
work. He learned the carpenter's trade which
then included that of the stone-mason, working
side by side with Joseph. Doubtless Jesus was
also a pupil at the village school taught by the
**hazzan," or schoolmaster, who was really
the janitor of the ssmagogue, which served
both as schoolhouse and temple.
The children were taught to read by reciting
in concert, repeatmg over and over again the
same thing. This method of teaching was in
general operation, even in America, up to
within a very few years ago.
This bright, active, and impressionable boy
learned by hearing the older ones recite ; by

82 W^ Man of i^orrotog

listening to Joseph and the neighbors as they
sat and discussed the Law and the Prophets
after the day's work was done; from the
chance visitors who came along at times ; and
from the peddlers who carried their curious
wares and trinkets for the women-folk.
Nazareth was not a pagan town like Cassarea,
where the Roman politicians lived and Greek
learning had taken root. Evidently Jesus knew
nothing of Greek culture, but he did know
something of Buddhism. Where he got this
knowledge we do not know — it is probable
that he evolved it, for ideas are in the air, and
belong to all who can appropriate them ; or
some traveler might have let fall the seeds by
the wayside.

In towns like Nazareth there was no caste —
all one person knew belonged to the rest. The
conversation was frill and free. And that this
boy with his thoughtfril ways and his thirst
to know, and all of his fine energy, absorbed
ideas on every hand there is no doubt. He
knew all that the best in the place knew, and
all he himself knew besides.
Like all country boys he was familiar with the
birds of the air, the lilies of the field, and the
foxes that made their holes beneath the rocks.

Wst jWan of i^orroto< 28

<( The lake, exaggeratedly called the Sea of
Galilee, twelve miles long and seven wide, was
only a few miles away, and there he used to go
with his companions to fish ; so the process of
fishing and the handling of boats was to him
familiar. He grew to be very fond of these
fisher-folk who lived along the lake. They were
strong, hardy, companionable men with the
dash of the hero in them.
Jesus was not an educated person in our sense of
the word, and this is most fortunate. Learning
tames and dilutes a man ; he grows to reverence
authorities and things that are dead, and so he
gradually loses his own God-given heritage of
self-reliance. A reformer must of a necessity
be more or less ignorant. In fact, the finest
nobility is only possible in a man who has
never had a teacher — who acknowledges no
authority but the God within. As a general
proposition, ignorance and isolation are both
necessary in the equipment of the supremely
great who are to mold the minds of men and
break up the firm ankylosis of social habit,
fixed thought and ossified custom. Learning
hesitates and defers, but ignorance is bold.
OriginaUty is not a thmg that is fostered by the
schools — ^a statement that requires no proof.

g^ Wtft jWan of J^ttnoiM

<( Some of the words of Jesus are paraphrases
from Buddha Siddhartha, but these were old
maxuns, floating free, known m aU countries,
and repeated from mouth to mouth by men of
a certam temperaments
A Jewish rabbi by the name of Hillel, some
years before had uttered aphorisms much like
those which Jesus repeated ; and Fhilo, a most
earnest young Jew, had spoken words of love
and tenderness in similar speech. But there is
no reason to believe that Jesus ever knew of
Buddha, Hillel or Philo, save as the wisdom
of these had passed into the cturent coin of
thought. Strong men of similar type, placed
in certain circumstances, will come to similar
conclusions. On truth there is no copyright.
G[ With the Hebrew Prophets, Jesus very early
became familiar by hearing them read in the
synagogue, and in fact it was in reciting from
the Prophets that he learned to read. Isaiah
was especially interesting to him. The Book
of Daniel and the account of the Captivity of
the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar impressed him
greatly. He read with vivid interest the story
of those earnest young Hebrews who trod in
safety the fiery furnace, and of Daniel in the
lion's den. The wild wailing and the torrent

of pathetic eloquence of Jeremiah shook his
bojosh frame. The splendid dreams for the
future, and the hot invective toward those who
blocked the way to the realization of the Jewish
Utopia, filled his heart. Jesus read and re-read
the visions of Enoch, and the prophecies of
a coming Messiah took a firm hold upon his
impressionable nature. He read of how political
revolutions were to occur, nation would rise
against nation, family against family, and at
last the Messiah was to unite the faithfiil and
lead them out of their poverty and woes, out
from the captivity of their enemies, bringing
them into peace, prosperity and plenty.
Jesus knew of Caesar, but beyond this Roman
history was to him a blank. He knew nothing
of the peace Augustus had brought about, but
supposed the nations of the earth had little
occupation beyond fighting each other. He
believed political power was for persecution ;
that governments were simply institutions for
undoing the people ; that taxation was robbery,
and that the rich were lecherous gourmands,
devoid of pity and dead to shame, a dangerous,
selfish class whose amusement was oppression.
G[ His own people were very lowly, all of his

companions were simple people, the

28 qPbt 0Um of ^ontibai

fisher-folk he occasionally visited were poor.
Poverty grew to him to he a sort of virtue
and wealth a crime. The fierce imprecations
of Isaiah toward the &lse priests, meachers,
lawyers and skulking hypocrites found easy
lodgment in his heart, and to be rich and a
hypocrite were to him synonymous.
Even at the early age of twelve we find he
was so self-reliant in his thinking, so fearless
of opposition, so indifferent to precedent,
Uiat on a trip to JerusiJem with his parents,
he forgot the booths and bazaars, the music
and processions, and going into the Temple,
engaged the learned, gray-haired Doctors in
an earnest theological dispute, probably very
much to their astonishment, if not amusement
^■■^^HE feeling of sublimity was early
mW I developed in Jesus, a soaring sense
All of expansion and power. There are
^^^^ very many who go through life
and never know anything of this
higher existence, when the heavens appear
to opoi and truth comes to us without the
medium of books and teachers.
The love emotions do not have to be taught
— they are not imparted — ^they spring out of
our nature when the time is ripe, and we feel

and know. So there is a sense of Divinity that
comes to certain men — ^they feel their kinship
with God — ^the Universal Life flows through
them, and they realize they are instruments
of Deity. This is what may be termed Natural
religion — ^religion given by Nature — ^a religion
sent from Grod. It is different from a dogmatic
belief that is explained to us by a man who
has thought it all out for us, and who had it
explained to him by some one else. That
quality of the mind which constructs creeds,
argues fine points, and logically proves or
syllogistically disposes, will spread its own
withering aridity and dry up the fountain of
the soul. Spirituality is seldom the possession
of those who profess it, and culture ever eludes
those who stealthily pursue her as a business.
<( Suppose lovers were required to explain why
they love and believe in each othar — could
they doit?

Natural religion is a matter of the heart; a
great welling emotion of love and gratitude —
an overwhelming desire to give, benefit and
bless all mankind.

Man-made religion is a question of theology
— a matter of the head, and has fear as its
base, not fSaith. Theology is a clutch for power ;

28 W^ jWan of i^oCTOipg

but love is a desire to give, benefit and bless.
C[ This high sense of kinship with the Divine
came to Jesus at adolescence. No doubt the
children of the street informed him concerning
the peculiarities of his birth, for a little town,
of Oriental cast, especially, is only a big family,
and everybody knows everybody else's history
in minutest detail. Jesus had, while but a
child, asked his mother about his birth, and
she had satisfied him with the very natural
explanation, ''You are the son of Grod.''
This calm, serious youth with the big, open,
wondering eyes, had not forgotten the remark
— ^he had repeated it to other children on the
street and repeated it to himself. Some of the
children had laughed, others had gone home
and told their parents, and as Jesus grew older
he held himself aloof fi'om the rest somewhat
moodily. He possessed great pride, and his
fine intellect of itself set him apart fix>m the
swarms of Sjrrian youngsters who firolicked
and fought in the gutters of Nazareth.
At the synagogue he could read before any of
his playmates could — he could read alone, but
the other children had to read in concert or not
at alL There were no priests in these village
synagogues, simply the hazzan or caretaker and

the readers. These readers were volunteers
and were not paid anything for their services.
By a sort of natural selection, however, the
man of intellect and purpose gravitated to the
reading desk, and the hazzan, who had charge
of the sacred rolls, would unlock the little
closet where these precious documents were
kept, and hand to the reader the book desired
for that particular service.
Very early in life Jesus had acquired the habit
of entering the synagogue on the Sabbath
day, and reading aloud to the little company
from the scrolls, expounding the Scriptures as
he read, and commenting on them.
It is somewhat curious that where children are
taught to read by repeating the alphabet in
concert and reading aloud together, there are
some who really never learn to read at alL
People with abnormal memories often have
very mediocre intellects. The stcMy-tellers and
reciters of the East, and those whom one
meets at times in the by-ways of Europe,
very often cannot read. Blind people have
much better verbal memories than those who
can see. To read and write carries with it a
penalty — ^in degree you lose your memory.
<( So in Palestine there were very many who

80 tKde jWan cf ^^orrotitf

went to school and learned to read in concertr
who, when their school-days were past, never
again looked at a book, and soon they were
absolutely illiterate, having forgotten all save
the few things that they had memorized.
Hence, the man who kept up his reading
practice was the exception, there being no
books in these poor villages, save those that
the hazzan so jealously guarded. And we can
easUy imagine that if a person could not read
well, the hazzan, feeling the importance and
responsibility of his position, would refuse to
entrust him with the scrolls.
Jesus read remarkably well, because he had
intellect, backed up by a noble and beautiful
spirit. Expression is a matter of mind, and
the voice is the index of the soul. The person
who understands what he reads and through
whom emotion spontaneously plays, has a
fine, expressive and vibrant voice. It is tone
that tells, not words. Jesus was affected by
the tones of the people and often spoke of
this, once telling how the sheep knew the voice
of the shepherd and came at his call, and how
we were moved by the voices of those we
loved and in whom we had confidence.
Through this continued habit of reading aloud

Z^ jWan at l^orrohat

and expounding the Scriptures, there grew up
in the little villages of Cana, Nazareth and
Capernaum an increasing regud for the young
man, and they addressed him Rabbi, Teacher
or Master.

k HILE Jesus was yet a child,
1 Joseph died, and Mary moved
' with her little brood to Cana,
about seven miles away. She
had kinsmen in Cana, and she
hoped to better her material condition by the
change. Mary, evidently, was a woman of
considerable strength of mind and decision.
She was the head of the household, and long
after Jesus had grown to manhood he was
called "the Son of Mary.*' Noble as he was,
Jesus did not overshadow the mother who
bore him. Cana was not nearly so pleasantly
situated as Nazareth, and was only about half
its size. It was at Cana that Jesus manifested
first, in a public way, his religious power.
This exaltation of spirit is essentially the mark
of genius, and it might also be truthfully stated
that when carried to an extreme it is the mark
of insanity. All sublime poems, great pictures
and marvelous musical compositions have been
produced in this mood of uplift said ecstasy.

88 W^ jWan of S^atttAuS

Doubtless most people have spasms of insight,
but to hold the mood and utilize it in oratory
or any other form of art is the distinguishing
sjrmbol of greatness. Those who are uniformly
wise are very commonplace.
Religious fervor or ecstasy is a secondary sex
manifestation; what is known as the artistic
impulse is a variant of the same mood. Both
are highly creative, and by their spell other
minds are uplifted and vitalized.
The man sees, knows, does, and very often he
cannot give reasons, or explain how or why.
This ecstasy of faith, hope, uplift and sublime
strength is highly contagious, and sick people
—those with nervous disorders— commg under
its influence, are often made to stand erect,
unsupported, leap with joy— and are well.
C[ Thoughtftd physicians know and admit the
wonderftd efiects of mind upon mind, and of
mind over matter. Most physical ills proceed
from disordered imagination, and in passing,
it may be well to state this fact : Imagination
is the most intensely real and actual thing
of which we know. The pains and sorrows of
the imagination are the only real ones, and all
the joys and delights of men are matters of
spirit. AU appetites, with then* attractions and

revulsions, are matters of the imagination,
<( The extent to which one highly imaginative
individual of sterling purity of purpose and
sublime power may benefit the weary, the
weak, the depressed, the sorely stricken and
the si(^, we do not yet know. But the cures
and benefits are not miraculous — ^they are all
under some distinct, invariable Law which as
yet we imperfectly understand. It is part of
the great Unknown.

The belief that the Spirit of God was acting
through him, came to Jesus as an actual, living
fact. He read and re-read the story of Daniel,
and he noted how this brave young man kept
himself firee fi*om defilement by revising to eat
the meat and drink the wine that the pagan
king had provided. And he resolved that he,
too, would keep his body pure. He would not
defile the Temple of the Most High by being
led into sensuality and a search for bodily
pleasure and gratification.
There is a fine tang in doing without things^
in living plainly, sleeping hard and scorning
the soft and luxurious. The ascetic gets his
gratification by having spirit rule the flesh,
instead of flesh ruling spirit.
In his moods of fervor Jesus felt that indeed

he was the Son of Grod. All people who can
catch a glimpse mto this higher life of the
spirit come to this conclusion, that all is One.
There is only one Source of life and we are all
partakers of it. Yet there are many degrees of
life, and we hear of Jesus urging his followers
to have '^life in abundance." We are all Sons
of God, and we come close to our Father as
we seek to ascertain and do His bidding.
When we truly pray, "Thy will be done,"
then we are bringing about a heaven now —
His Kingdom upon Earth.
This desire to do the will of God became the
controlling impulse in the life of Jesus — he
woidd live humbly, truthfully and earnestly,
and being in communication with Gk>d, he
would get his instruction directly from Him
and not through the Jewish Law. He thought
of God actually as his Father, and as a loving
father would lead, instruct and du*ect his child,
so would God lead and direct him.
The Kingdom must be gained, not by making
war on the established order, but by accepting
it} paying taxes to Ccesar, making the best of
outward environment by submitting to it, and
then conquering through this subUme ecstasy
of the soul that raises one clear above the dross

of earth and the rust and dust of time. ''Lay
not up for yourselves treasures on earth. " The
continued habit of pure thinking and simple
Uving brings a reward beyond the value of
gold, lands and bams. And this wealth of the
soul endures.

He had felt the richness of the loving heart
that asks for nothing, wants nothing, envies
no man, that never resents, which accepts all
— sublimely rich and satisfied in doing the
will of God 1

* * The Kingdom of God is within you, ' ' he said.
<( The Prophets had continually told of a
Messiah who would come and lead the Jews
out of the rule of the pagans and unite them
in a great, happy and prosperous family.
It came to Jesus with a thrill and a throb that
he himself might be this Messiah 1 But the
more he thought of an earthly kingdom —
a place where the Jews might be gathered
together — ^the more impossible it seemed to
bring such a matter about. The first attempt
would lead straight to an armed resistance on
the part of the established order — ^the priests,
scribes, publicans and all other ofiicers of the
government. He therefore easily came to the
sensible conclusion that the Kingdom of God

4 •

was a matter of the spirit. Again and again he
says, '"Blessed are the pure in heart."
Jesus reverenced and had fiiith m his inmost
convictions, because he believed these came
directly from Grod. He beheved that if he
were absolutely honest, simple, direct, and
unselfish in his thoughts and acts, speaking
as his Father directed, then indeed would he
reflect the wiU of God and bring about the
Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Thus would he be the long-looked-for Messiah.
H In general intent the idea of Jesus was
expressed by Confucius, five hundred years
before, when he said: "'Be free from desirei;
lust, greed and wrath ; be tranquil, linafiected
by pain or pleasure, praise or censure, honor or
dishonor; be moderate; treat fiiiend and foe
alike ; utter only such speech as shall cause no
sorrow; be true, agreeable, beneficent and you
shall govern the world.''
Contemporaneous with Confucius there lived
Gautama who expressed practically the same
truths m the " Eight-fold Path of Peace. * ' The
plea was for cleanliness, kindness, sobriety,
piuity and cheerfrilness, and the belief was
that these things would lead to a happier
reincarnation and at last to blessed Nirvana.

Clic jHan of frorrohtf «7

i HEN Jesus came to believe that
i the firm character of Daniel
' cune from his purity of purpose
and his absolute reliance on
God; that freedom to every
man arrives when he deserves it; and that
the Kingdom of €>od was hot in the &r-off
friture, but here and now, if we would but
cease striving and become as httle children,
and enter in, a great load was lifted from his
heart.

It was n't a matter of strife and struggle — no,
it was just letting go, living lightly, easily,
naturally in &ith and love, confidence and hope.
H A great light had come to him — he would
overcome through affection and not through
resistance ^ "Resist not evil" — he would
conquer by yielding — violence begets violence,
force begets force, and love begets love. In his
soul he felt a great and abiding peace, and this
peace was tokened in his gentleness, his sweetly
modulated voice, and the light that illimiined
his soul shone out eloquently through his calm
and lustrous ^es.

He wanted nothing and to want nothing is to
possess alL If we want nothing and have
nothing that others can take away from us.

88 W^ jWan td i^orrotitf

we are unafraid. Perfect love casteth out fear.
<( At this time Jesus bad no disciples, and had
founded no sect nor school. He moved in and
out among the people freely — ^he talked little,
but his silence was eloquent. The loungers,
awed, moved out of his way as he passed, but
the children, recognizing in him one in whom
there was neither fear nor reason for fear,
clung to his hands and robe and came and
seated themselves on his knees while he sat
<(This sweetness, gentleness and strength,
especially appealed to women. Women are
instinctively on their guard against the selfish,
gluttonous man. But the self-contained man
who makes no demands upon them ; who in
degree is indifierent to them; who can do
without them ; who is without passion, having
mastered passion, and therefore is not passion's
slave, such a one always attracts women before
he attracts men. All good women seek the
man they can trust — one in whom they can
believe.

And so through the winiiing gentleness of
Jesus, his poise, his unselfishness, his high
intellect, there grew up about him a little
company who followed him, finding peace in
his presence. If he read and spoke in the

synagogue in the morning they would all be
present; and if it were known that he was to
speak in some neighboring village later in the
day, a goodly group of women and children,
and men as well, would follow him.
Once we hear of his riding a mule that was
supplied by some well-to-do admirer, and the
children in playful mood ran ahead and strewed
palms in the way, and doubtless the young
man smiled upon them kindly. And surely
the smile from such a one was reward enough.
<( Jesus had absolutely no sympathy with a
paid, professional priesthood. He thought the
intermediary quite needless and unnecessary
— ^and worse, it was the sure undoing of the
intermediary, for such a one at once began to
take honors to himself, and to inwardly say,
'^ I am holier than thou."
At Jerusalem he had seen the Pharisees, a
sect of the Jews, many of them wealthy and
powerful people, pray on public street corners.
This had offended his sense of fitness, and so
also had the badges, '"phylacteries" and the
peculiar dress they wore to show their rank.
And so he sought to explain to the people
that God was spirit, and not a Governor or
Ruler, and we must worship Him in spirit and

5T must not be thought that Jesus
spent aU of his time preaching «^
in going from place to place. His
whole life was quiet and free fix>m
undue excitement, excepting those
few weeks at the last. He was never more than
seventy.five miles from home, and was known,
comparatively, to but a few. Most of the time
he worked at his trade, often finding diversion
in dressing the vines, or helping gather the
clusters of grapes in the vineyards that dotted
the hillsides, thus assisting his neighbors in
their tasks. At other times he would tend the
flocks, and at night-time assist in housing the
sheep in the stone enclosures so they would be
safe against prowling wolves.
Preaching, therefore, was quite incidental to
him, although he talked with any or all who
showed a desire to know the truth. His life
was without worldly ambition. His desire was
to serve, and no useful task was alien to him.
This life of humility, simplicity and useful
effort, of truth and gentleness, he regarded as
the Godlike life. ** Whosoever wiU save his life
shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake shall find it," he said. The man
was not wholly indifferent to happiness, but he

knew a better way to secure it than to deprive
others of it or to clutch, strive and struggle
for it. Man's true wants are few and Nature is
bountiful ; if we love Grod and seek to do the
will of Grod, we should show it in our attitude
toward our neighbors, and all good things will
be added unto us.

This is a very beautifiil religion and if followed
out by a majority, would surely redeem the
world; and after all our philosophizing, we
turn at last for rest to this gentle religion of
Jesus, so simple, yet so noble and true — ^the
religion of love and service. Here, only, do we
find rest for our souls.

O passed the years in peace and
plenty. Jesus was twenty-eight
years of age, in the very prime
of his early manhood, when the
quiet of his life was broken in
upon by the actions of a young man named
John, whose fame had gone throughout all
Palestine.

John was the son of Zacharias, a Jewish priest,
and was about the same age as Jesus. Their
mothers were cousins, and were acquainted
before their births, so it is quite likely that
the young men, too, knew each other as they

grew up. John was bom at Hebron, a little
town about fifty miles firom Nazareth, on the
border of the desert. His ideas as to asceticism
went dear beyond those of Jesus — ^he would
wander forth into the desert and live alone for
days, drinking out of the clefts of the rocks
and keeping himself firom actual starvation by
eating locusts and wild honey. He dressed in
skins like a savage, discarding every comfort,
and when he came out of his hiding place and
approached a town, he would call aloud to the
people to repent and ''flee from the wrath to
come." He seemed to be a reincarnation of
the Prophet Elqah, dressing like him, acting
like him, and talking like him. His prophecies
were especially severe on the rich and the
politicians, and he seemed to think that the
end of the world was about to come, and that,
indeed, the Children of Israel were soon to be
redeemed from the yoke of oppression and to
be brought together to live in peace and unity,
free from all bondage.

He himself was not to bring about this great
revolution — ^he was only preparing the way for
another who was to come soon, the latchet of
whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose.
H Such evangelists with an excess of zeal are

not uncommon ; even in our day we have seen
a man claiming to be the Third incarnation of
Elijah. This modem prophet is not exactly
an ascetic, but like Ely ah the First, he has
foretold much evil, and like John, warned
men to flee from some mysterious wrath.
John was essentially of the Yogi type, and his
power and earnestness sent a thrill of terror
through the people wherever he went. The
Jewish mmd was quite prepared for such men
as John, having seen others of his kind, and
being already filled with the Messianic thought.
H Jesus had a peace and poise that John did
not possess. However, Jesus was powerfuUy
impressed by him. John called upon the people
to repent and to band themselves together,
and the symbol of this repentance was baptism
by immersion — ^a public renunciation and a
performance that all could see.
John had journeyed to within a few miles firom
where Jesus was then staying, and Jesus
hearing of the excitement and sympathizing
with it to a degree, went with several of his
conurades to the river Jordan where John was
baptizing.

John did not have a scintilla of that beautiful
and gentle religion of Jesus — he was bold.

flHHHHBBUBHHIHHHHHHHHHHHBHHIHIHHHH^^^^^^^^^^BHBHHIHHBHHHB

denunciatory, icon^lastic, threatening. But
the people he denounced were the very same
people whom Jesus inveighed against — the
Scribes, Pharisees and the professional priests
and politicians. So it will be seen there was a
natural bond of sympathy between John and
Jesus, and the difference in their methods and
manners was largely a matter of temperament.
H John, like all evangelists, called upon the
hearers to ''come forward," and in common
with many others present, Jesus accepted the
invitation, went forward, and was baptized.
Jesus did not think of rivaling John, nor did
he assert his superiority— he sunply showed
that he was in sympathy with the zealot.
Yet he did not mix with the disciples of John
on an absolute equality ; he and his conorades
kept aloof and soon went their own way. But
John had profoundly impressed Jesus, and we
hear of Jesus imitating him, starting in soon
on his own account to baptize his converts.
Jesus saw that the plan of baptizing was a
good one — it was doing something positive,
and could not help giving the candidate a
thrill he would long remember. Such a form of
initiation has its psychic use with people of
moderate intellects — ^a simple spiritual change

of thought and life is not enough — ^they want
to do something positive and pronounced.
And we can easily see how immersion would
impress the convert in a way that the modern^
attenuated manner of baptism by sprinkling
would not.

The nature of Jesus was essentially feminine
— he was sympathetic, impressionable and
easily moved towards imitation. Indeed, this
is the artistic type of character, and most of
us know the feeling of reading a great book
and wanting to write one just like it. When
preparing a speech, Webster used to read the
orations of Cicero to key his mind to the
proper pitch, and such a self-reliant man as
Robert Browning had a habit of beginning the
day by reading Shakespeare, that he might
get somewhat into the swing and stride of the
master.

Jesus now began to preach and baptize after
the manner of John. One was on the eastern
bank of the Jordan, the other on the western.
John had gotten along undisturbed while he
remained in Judea, as Pilate, the easy-going
Roman Procurator, was not inclined to dictate
to his people; instead he allowed them the
fullest liberty of expression, as he believed

48 tHe jlten c( i^orroliM;

that all excesses tended to cure themselves.
But John had now mvaded the province ruled
by Antipas Herod, a degenerate son of Herod
the Great. Antipas was a whimsical and weak
man, with an ambitious, robustious, violent
and turbulent helpmeet. This woman also had
a royal pedigree, and as far as we know she
never for a moment forgot it. She had a strong
bias for interference — and also a grown-up
daughter, Salome by name, bom of a former
marriage. Salome was the child of her mother.
Many reports had come to Antipas, and his
interesting family, of John the Baptist, whose
fame was constantly growing «i* Men were
leaving their work, getting ready for the great
change that was soon to end the world, with
the coming of the Messiah. This of course
meant an end to Antipas. Excitement was in
the air 1 Rumor was rife and great uneasiness
was apparent.

Personally the Governor was not disturbed as
to his own fate, but this religious excitement
was taking on a political complexion. We have
seen religious movements in America that gave
spasms of fear, perhaps not without reason,
to statesmen, so-called, in Washington. Very
seldom, indeed, do religious bodies keep clear

W$t jlten c( l»orrolM{ ^»

of poUtics — ^they vote solidly. John inveighed
against the existing government — ^against all
governments — and he even went so far as to
seriously criticise the domestic relations of his
Grovemor or tetrarch.

Herodias had been the wife of Philip, brother
of the tetrarch. John condemned this second
marriage as indecent, wicked and contrary to
the kws of God, thereby bringing upon his
head the vindictive hatred of a revengeful
woman who possessed the power to punish — ^a
proceeding more dangerous than the mere
infraction of statutory law. John was as bitter,
sarcastic and severe towards Antipas and his
consort as Hamlet was towards his mother
and her husband. King Claudius.
This was really too much — John was arrested,
manacled and marched away to prison, and
his followers dispersed.

Jesus took warning and retired into the desert.
H Herodias and Salome had their way : John
the Baptist's biting tongue must be silenced.
There was only one way to do this, for even
in prison he talked and preached, exhorted,
calling upon men to repent, and sent messages
of encouragement to Jesus and others. There
is a legend that Salome made love to John,

C3&t ifRsn ot l^octotwt

but be repulsed ber. <( Jobn was bebeaded.
And so at last was his tongue silenced — bis
lips dumb.

Shortly after this Jesus returned to Galilee, a
subdued and sorrowful man.

'^v^ EPRESSION is invariably the

^m\ ^ first ingredient in the recipe for

^M r^^ revolution.

^^^^L, Jesus did not long remain silent.
His new experiment bad tended
to broaden bis mind, deepen bis nature and
intensify bis thought. The execution of John
was a terrible thing — done by government —
his hatred fcnr officialism was increased 1 In
all of this tragedy Jesus seemed to foresee the
sombre symbol of bis own undoing. But be
was not dismayed. He would live his life — be
would speak the truth as he saw it — be would
express his inmost self I

When be began once more to preach, it was
with a confidence and power of expresdon that
was before unknown to him. He talked now
to "the multitude," which probably means
several hundred people at a time, and in his
oratory there was plainly apparent a dash of
lofty scorn.
Like all men who are led largely by their

tS%t iKan of H^orroiiMl si

feelings, his words were strangely inconsistent.
He spoke in parable. He argued submission
to the established order, yet rebuked those in
authority. He explained that his kingdom was
not of this world, but prophesied peace, now
and here, to the souls of such as would follow
him. He talked of glad tidings, and yet said
that the righteous would be persecuted.
** Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted," but whether comforted here
or hereafter, he is not always sure.
The Old Testament contains no hint of future
rewards and punishments — the grave ends
all. If man is immortal the Hebrew Prophets
did not know it Af&> Jesus believed in a life
after death, and urges his followers to lay up
treasures for themselves in heaven — ^that is, in
another world, where moth and rust do not
corrupt, nor where thieves break through and
steal «i* «i*

Jesus now boldly proclaimed himself the Son
of God, and said, ''I and my Father are One. "
H Several of the followers of John had now
come to him, and these by their presence and
faith, if not in actual words, had inspired him
to take up the work of John the Baptist. John
had foretold the quick coming of the Messiah,

flHHHHBBUBHHIHHHHHHHHHHHBHHIHIHHHH^^^^^^^^^^BHBHHIHHBHHHB

and Jesus was now confident that he himself
was the ''Son of Man," prophesied by Daniel,
who was to come and found a Kingdom and
who would judge the world and lead it out of
bondage. And by ''bondage/' Jesus meant
the bondage to custom, habit and sm — ^not
bondage to Rome. Yet for Rome he had not
a shadow of respect.

Jesus had now practically ceased to be a Jew
— ^he had gone far beyond that He called all
men to repentance, not the Jews alone, and
deliberately placed his own commands above
those of the Hebrew Law. He had a way of
saying, "They have said unto you in olden
time, but I say unto you," ***** thus
revealing his implicit belief in himself and his
own divine mission.

He now lived at Capernaum, an important
village located on the shores of Lake Tiberias.
Here he had dose personal friends and few
carping critics. He had gotten quite out of
conceit with the gossiping little hamlet of
Nazareth — ^he had tried to arouse that place,
but there he could do no "mighty work on
accoimt of the unbelief of the people. "
Grave old men had shaken their heads and
stroked their beards as they asked, "Is not

tPbe jWan oC l»orroti«t w

this Jesus, the Son of Mary ? Why, we knew
him when he was a youngster, playing in these
alleys and going with the shepherds to bring
in the lambs to the foldl" These old men
belonged to the great order of **Wc knew
him whenl "

And Jesus repeated an old saying, ''A prophet
is not without honor, save in his own country. ' '
At Capernaum he did not find this prejudice
that is the result of familiarity. He made his
home there with a prosperous and excellent
man called Zebedee, and all deference and
honor were paid him. Zebedee had two sons,
James and John, who especially believed in
Jesus and his divine mission and longed to
help him bring about this ** New Jerusalem "
of which they heard. The mother of these
young men also had much faith in Jesus and
his mission, as we are told she once secretly
requested Jesus to reserve first places in heaven
for her two sons — one on his right and one on
his left hand — ^a beautifiil and motherly request.
This John, the son of Zebedee, was only a
youth, but he was impressionable and ftdl of
the spirit — ^gentle and clairvoyant by nature.
Jesus became much attached to him, although
neither then knew what an important part this

John, ''the beloved disciple/' would play in
placing the Gospel before the people of the
world ^ J^

Then there were two other brothers, sons of
one Jonas, by name Simon Peter and Andrew.
Peter was married and in his family lived his
wife's mother, who once was taken very sick,
and they sent for Jesus that she might be
cured of her illness.

These fishermen continued their regular woric:
while Jesus was with them, but we hear of
Jesus one day telling them that they would
better quit and go with him on an evangelizing
tour, and ''I will make you fishers of men."
<( For Peter, especially, Jesus had the greatest
admiration. Peter was ten years or more older
than Jesus and of a very strong, sturdy type.
His name meant ''the rock," and Jesus was
fond of playing upon the fitness of it. Peter
did not have a great amoimt of intellect or
insight ; he was impulsive — usually doing his
thinking after he had spoken. He was of the
motive temperament and a natural leader of
the hardy, rough men of his class. Yet even
though he had small delicacy of spirit, he had
faith, which often answers the pm^ose of this
world better. Jesus lived at the home of Peter

part of the time, and used to borrow his boat
and preach from it to the people who gathered
along the shore.

Capernaum, Bethsaida and Magdala were only
a little way apart, and at all of these places
Jesus had many firiends. At Magdala was a
woman named Mary who was known as the
Magdalene, for the same reason that Jesus was
called the Nazarene. This woman was to play
an important part in his history. Evidently
the Magdalene was a woman of much spirit,
but of a neurotic temperament ^ She had
suffered long from some nervous disorder,
which the simple villagers said came from her
* ^being possessed with devils ' ' — ^her reputation
being of a kind that doubtless made it easy for
her neighb9rs to believe in this devil theory.
Jesus was Qot afraid of having his reputation
smirched — ^he was a friend to the Magdalene.
H By his wonderfrd presence Jesus sent the
''devils " out of her nature, and she became
calm, poised and sane as she listened to the
words that fell from his gentle lips.
T his territory where Jesus preached, we must
remember, was very limited in extent — ^the
entire distance he traversed being only about
fifteen or twenty miles and back. Jesus simply

traversed through these simple little villages,
where the people supplied their few wants by
fishing, growing grapes and tending the flocks.
The world of economics, education, science,
politics and industry was absolutely unknown
to them. There were no post-offices, banks,
stores, or enterprises for public transportation;
they knew nothing of geography, astronomy,
botany, and little of history ; the problems of
labor and capital were unguessed. They planted
little gardens, plucked the ripe fruits, ate the
melons, trod out the grapes for wine, drew
their nets, looked after the flocks, and wore
their simple home-made garments. They did
not travel.

They knew nothing of the size of the world,
its evolution, nor of the people who inhabited
it beyond a two-days' journey from their
homes. They were children who ate when they
were himgry, slept when they were sleepy and
worked a little when they felt like it. They
were contented and happy.
The whole of Galilee is now a desert waste.
For centuries men did not plant trees nor
care for them. No effort was made to rotate
the crops nor to fertilize the soil. They burned
the wood and sought not to replace it, so

Nature naturally grew discouraged and ceased
to send her rain ; the dews no longer formed,
and where once were smiling gardens, trees,
vines and flowers there is now, for the most
part, only a parched, barren soil and a desolate
outlook of broken rocks.
In the time of Jesus one could live for quite
a while along the shores of Lake Tiberias,
practically without labor, and this is what
Jesus and his disciples did. '^ Take no thought
for the morrow," Jesus said. ** Behold the
fowls of the air, are they not fed? And for
clothing, look at the lilies of the field, they
toil not, neither do they spm, yet Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these 1"

This, we would now say, is poor economics, but
the disciples did not argue the point. Jesus
was enough of a pantheist to believe men are
brothers to the lilies and to the birds, and that
the Power that cared for these would care for
us if we only had faith:

No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate

the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the

one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and

mammon.

Therefore I sa^r uito you, take no thought for jour Hfe,

what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your
body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than
meaty and the body than raiment ?
Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into bams; yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto
his stature?

And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow : they toil not, neither
do they spin : and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He
not much more clothe you, O ye of little fiiith ?
Therefore take no thought, saying. What shall we eat ?
What shall- we drink ? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(for after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto
you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof.

Jesus would seat himself on the hillside and
thus talk to those gathered near. They were
all quite satisfied — was not this enough ? Why
should they not thus be happy always ? The
kingdom of heaven was at hand. Everything

they needed was theirs, and like the Prophet
of Concord, they owned the landscape. They
helped themselves to com on the Sabbath day
as they passed through the fields — all days
were goodl The only thing that we should
hunger and thirst after is righteousness, and
if we really do hunger for it we shall be filled.
The way to inherit the earth was not to sweat,
work and toil for it, but simply be meek. If
we desire mercy, we must be merciful; and
if we are pure in heart we shall have the great
happiness to see God. Then, after all, if we
are persecuted, why, so much the better, for
as reward for enduring the persecution we will
be partakers in the kingdom of heaven.
In playful mood he referred to the disciples as
the sheep of his pasture. It was a very happy
period — this out-of-door life, with the grand
comradeship of faithful firiends — mountain,
plain, valley, trees, birds, fowls and flowers as
symbols for spiritual things. Men alone could
not eiyoy this life, but there were women, and
this mingling of the male and female minds in
joyous abandon produced a fine intoxication;
and the lofty and delicate asceticism of Jesus
lifted the whole atmosphere out of the sensual
into the sensuous.

60 tlPbe jWan of i^orroto

If Jesus was not able to actually procure and
produce grand mansions, jewels and all soft
luxuries of the rich, he could at least inspire
his disciples with a disdain and an indifference
for such things. It seems a lapse in logic to
offer as a reward in heaven the very things his
disciples affected to despise on earth, but such
inconsistencies always go with simple minds,
that make a virtue of necessity J^ Ill-gotten
wealth is surely not to be desired, but rags are
no recommendation, and poverty is of itself
no passport to paradise, even though a rich
man's wealth might keep him out. Lazarus,
so far as we know, had nothmg to recommend
him beyond the fact that he was a beggar;
««1 «.L » we know, there w,« JL^
against Dives but the fact that he was rich.
<( Then we hear of some peculiar political
economy in reference to a certain steward who
canceled the obligations of the debtors of his
employer, without the employer's consent.
Also there are prayers asking that we may be
forgiven our debts without payment. Such a
philosophy could be attractive only to very
poor and very childish people. Civilization
demands that men shall face their obligations,
and surely we do not want to be forgiven our

debts — ^we pray rather that we may have the
ability to pay them, and this prayer, moreover,
is expressed by work and action much more
than in words.

The admonition, too, as to bestowing ahns
and selling all one has and giving the money
to the poor, we recognize now as unscientific
sociology. To sell goods simply to get the
money to give away, is not the method of an
economist — goods may be worth more than
money. To follow the advice would pauperize
the rich and not benefit the poor. Every good
thing in life must be earned. And if the wealth
of the world were turned over to the poor,
they themselves would have to give it away,
or else be barred out of paradise. And then if
wealth is a bad thing on earth, why is it a
good thing in heaven ? Why should man toil
and sweat, dig and delve, deny himself bodily
comfort and pleasure that he may inherit a
''mansion in the skies," and e^joy for an
endless eternity the luxurious idleness that is
condenmed on earth as selfish and wrong?
<( These things are noted here not by way of
criticism concerning a philosophy that glorifies
poverty and execrates wealth, but simply to
call attention to the fact that such preaching

would appeal only to very poor and lowly
people, those of the child-mmd. Jesus was
certamly not as ignorant as the average man
in his audience, but an audience of ignorant
people never will get an address that ranks
uniformly high ^ In talking at jails and to
people in prison, I have always found myself
congratulating the prisoners on their condition
and making pleasant references to the rogues
who have not been caught. Oratory is always
a collaboration between the speaker and the
hearer, and in large degree the pew keys the
discourse of the pulpit. Jesus was certamly
possessed of a very pure and lofty philosophy —
the philosophy of love and service — ^but when
he advocates quitting work, ceasing thrift, and
the indulgence in sharp practice and violence
towards the rich ; when he places a premium
upon poverty, and favors mendicancy as a
legitimate business, we see in it all simply a
reflection of the extreme crudity of the times.
T the annual Feast of the Passover
at Jerusalem there was a great
gathering of the Jews from all over
Palestine. Jesus had made several
pilgrimages — ^how many we do not
know, but now in his thirty-first year, we find

him with his little band of Galilean supporters,
setting out for the Holy City. They could
arrive there in three days, walking leisurely.
H Just what caused Jesus to go at this time
we do not know, since he surely had very little
sympathy with the cold Jewish formulas that
served as an excuse for bringing the throng
together. Possibly he wanted to convince the
Galileans that he was still a Jew in spirit ; or
perhaps he thought it was time to strike a
blow right at the heart of the cold sectarian
practices that only made clean the outside of
the platter, but which left the inmost hearts
of many full of extortion and excess.
It is quite likely that the followers wanted
excitement ; they had grown tired of the ideal
life that only dreams and rhapsodises — ^they
were Orientals, and the sweaty smell of the
mob, the bells, music, the gongs and songs
and cries of the market-place were attractive
to them. In Jerusalem they could hire a room
for a small sum and all huddle into it at night,
and in the morning they would get food at
the tents which supplied the wayfarer, and
then all the day, like true rustics that they
were, they could wander, open-mouthed, and
eiyoy the sights of this Celestial Midway.

Camp-meetings are attractive places and have
their social and psychic use.
The Temple itself interested Jesus more than
all else. It was a great stretching white stone
building, with porches and large pillars that
ran clear aroimd it. It was really the capitol,
for the easy-going Romans allowed the Jews
to carry on their own ecclesiastic government,
up to certain limits, imdisturbed. This Temple
was court-room, assembly and business place
combined. In the porches animals and fowls
were sold for sacrifice, and for food as welL
The money-changers were in evidence, and
everywhere the whole place bore the bustle
and boom of business.

The Temple had been built by Herod the
Great at much expense so as to please and
placate the Jews over whom he ruled. The
fact that it was built by the Romans after
their own particular style of architecture was
doubtless one cause of the prejudice that Jesus
felt towards it.

Besides the commercial air of the Temple,
it was a place of contention, argument and
dispute. The learned men here met and made
plain the diflference 'twixt tweedle-dee and
tweedle-dum. Education at Jerusalem was

nothing but the empty science of scholastics.
The study of the Law was pushed to the point
of absurdity, and the topic of how chickens
should be killed so as to make the most
acceptable sacrifice to God, was wrangled out
with citations, precedents, and references at
great length «i^ Fanaticism, hate, bitterness,
pedantry grew like jimson weeds out of a soil
where swine have been fattened. And like all
purely theological learning, the one who could
follow abstrusities and absurdities farthest,
took to their vain and empty hearts much
credit for their fatuous and futile performances.
The very things that drove love, gentleness,
truth and pity firom their hearts were the
things upon which they most plumed and
prided themselves. In these learned theological
wrangles the humanities had small place.
Jesus plainly says that to make a profession
of a beautiful sentiment is to degrade it into
the mire. Love as a business gives us moral
degradation ; and the worship of our Creator
as a profession produces pride, pretence and
pompots hypocrisy. Well has it been said, by
Edward Everett Hale, that you will find Gk>d
everjrwhere and anywhere but in a theological
seminary.

The controlling desire of Jesus was to do the
will of his Heavenly Father, to worship Him
in spirit and in truth, and here was only a
perversion of all that he held most dear —
simplicity, gentleness, unselfishness, kindness,
love and truth; these were unknown.
And no doubt he was further stung by the
indifferent treatment that he himself had
received. He was a man and a man of pride;
he had grown used to a certain amount of
deference — ^when he spoke in Galilee others
had listened, but here he was swallowed up
in a bellowing crowd.

His companions were laughed at, and all of
them, dust-stained, rude and rustic, supplied
diversion for the onlookers. The inhabitants
of Galilee were regarded as a mixed race by
the Jews of Jerusalem — ^they spoke a peculiar
dialect that often caused much amusement,
and we hear of how once the brogue of Peter
made his birthplace plainly evident, to his
great discomfort, danger and annoyance.
Only Jews were allowed to go into the Temple :
warning placards forbade, and the doorkeepers
were free with their challenges. It is quite
likely that these disdainfrd priests had openly
afironted the Galileans.

Jesus had seen all this scramble and disorder
that called itself religion before, but now he
had grown in purpose and spirit. In a moment
of revulsion, he took a scourge of cords, and
making a dash at the keepers of the booths
and the money-changers, who were calling
and crying their business, he forced them from
their places in the porch, calling to them in
wrath, '^Ye have made this place a den of
thieves 1"

This was certainly contrary to the general
attitude of Jesus, who had been preaching the
religion of humility and non-resistance, but
he was a man of stubborn courage and the
old Adam for the moment got the better of
him, and he drove them out in terror. It is
probable that in an hour all were back, crying
then- wares, quite forgetful of the disturbance
made by the fanatical and mysterious stranger.
<( Whether it was on this trip Jesus met Mark
and Luke who lived at Jerusalem, and Judas,
who came from the south of Jerusalem, and
welcomed them into the little company, we
do not know — ^the chronology is much mixed,
and just when a particular event occurred we
are not able to say. Uncorroborated history is
always received with doubt, for the writer may

«» ttlie iWan c( i^orrohtf

have been mistaken or prejudiced. The moral
teachings and self-evident truths of the four
Gospels are all that can be relied upon, for in
the period immediately following the time of
Jesus there were hundreds of Grospels and
creeds, each purporting to be the only true
and authentic version. At the Nicene Council,
in the year 825, the assembled bishops, after
much argument, decided by ballot just which
books were the inspired words of God, and
settled on liiose Grospels which were written
in Greek, the language of the £Eushionable
circles of Jerusalem, while the immediate
followers of Jesus were uneducated Hebrews.

CVIDENTLY at this time Jesus had
not made the acquaintance of that
interesting little family at Bethany,
three miles beyond the walls, where
he afterwards made his home.
All he had seen in Jerusalem saddened and
depressed him — ^Uie coldness of the priests, the
indifference of the people, the clutch for place
and power on one side, and dense stupidity on
the other, filled his heart with sadness. The
Jews had even reAised to give him a hearing
at Jerusalem, so busy were they with their
own sordid plots and plans.

t^be iHan of Iftorrobns

He declared to his disciples that such a state
could not endure — God would soon destroy it
all, and not one stone would he left upon
another of this goi^eous Temple that was
quite as much pagan as Judean.
And the littJe company started back home, to
Galilee, disappointed, silent and subdued, for
fairs are always disappointing, since they tire
us out

^■M^^HE division of Palestine known as
'^ ■ r Samaria lay between Judea and
■ 1 1 Galilee j> The Samaritans were
^^^^ regarded as heathen by most of
the orthodox Jews, and they were
accordingly shunned and despised by tiieir
narrow-minded Hebrew neighbors.
When Jesus and his followers reached Samaria,
and had passed beyond the dust and heat and
the caravans of the Judean desert, good cheer
gradually returned to them. Once more were
they among friends. In a minority of these
scattered villages Jesus had acquaintances. To
these he returned, and having memory of the
exclusive and insulting placards in the Temple
at Jerusalem that forbade any but Jews to
enter, he now proclaimed that he had not come
to save the Jews alone, but the whole world.

70 ttlie 0lm iA i^orrotoal

**I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance."

He broke down all lines of caste utterly, and
purposely and openly visited with the outcasts
of society. This love for the common people
had become the distinguishing feature of his
preaching; he welcomed the sick, the weak,
the depraved, those ** possessed of devils." In
that day there was no public plan of caring for
mental defectives or the insane — ^they roamed
abroad at will, and often turned away firom
houses, they lived in the cemeteries — ^that is,
in the neglected caves in the hillsides which
had served for graves.

Jesus had no fear of these poor creatures, nor
did he try to shield himself from liie presence
of lepers or those with any other contagious
disease. By a smile, a look, a word, a blessing
with his hands upon the head of the sufferer,
his strong spirit of love caused a new hope to
spring alive in the heart of the stricken person,
and very often the patient was made whole,
** leaping for joy."

There is no doubt but that many of these
miraculous cures were genuine, yet doubtless
with the passing years and the stories told
and re-told and written out long after the death

Wst iWan c( i^orrotog n

of Jesus, many errors and exaggerations have
crept in, the result of excessive zeaL
In one town of Samaria, Jesus went to a well
where there was a woman drinking waten
When he asked her for a drink she was much
surprised, for the Jews usually shunned the
Samaritans. He told her how he had been to
Jerusalem to worship, and she, pointing to
the hills, said, ''Our fathers worshipped in
this moimtain." And he answered, ''Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when you will
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father, but the true worshipper
wiU worship the Father in spuit and in truth. "
Then again we have a vivid glunpse of his
psychic power when he guessed liie woman's
whole history, much to her amazement.
This msight into the hearts of things— seeing
the motive behind liie act, and knowing the
conditions and environment of each soul, gave
Jesus a sense of justice such as the world has
very seldom witnessed.

Knowing hmnanity well, and realizing its
many temptations and weaknesses made him
forgiving. "To know all is to forgive all." To
really know people is to love them. So with
the wrong-doer Jesus was ever lenient. All his

7S tllie iKan of H^orrotnK

sarcasm was for those in high places, the
rich, the educated, who deliberately entered
into a life of selfish aggrandizement.
The courtesy and kindness that Jesus had
been shown in Samaria he repaid by various
complimentary references to the Samaritans
— ^he glorified these people the Jews despised.
His parable of the Good Samaritan is the
finest piece of literature in liie New Testament,
and the only parable that rings absolutely true.
It contains only one himdred and eighty words,
and not one could be spared ; neither do I see
where one could with profit be added :

A certain num went down from Jerusalem to Jerichoy
and fell amoni: tiiievesy which stripped him of his raiment,
and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
C( And by chance there came down a certain priest that
way : and when he saw him, he passed by on the other
side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place,
came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
C( But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where
he was : and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil
and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him
to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when
he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the
host, and said unto him. Take care of him : and whatsoever
thou spendeth more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
C( Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor
unto him that fell among the thieves ?

W^ 0Um of l^orrotitf 78

^^^ RRIVIN6 back at Nazareth, Jesus
I ^^ now found that his presence scarcely
V^bhI made a ripple on the surface of the
^(^^^^ lazy town ^ It was also thus at

Capernaum and Bethsaida — naught
but indifference.

Jesus did not seem to consider that in its very
nature excitement is transient : to receive one
big reception in a place is quite enough for a
lifetime — ^a great success can very seldom be
repeated. The dumbness, dullness and inane
stupidity of the people seriously offended the
Master. He cried aloud at the unimportant
little cross-road hamlets, **Woe imto thee,
ChorazinI woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the
mighty works, which were done in you, had
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes
***** And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down
to hell!"

This coldness and indifference that he had met
with, for a time soured his disposition and
made him forget his native poise and serenity.
<( The chief charm in the teachings of Jesus
lies in their paradoxical and enigmatic quality.
Without this, it is certain that his words

7* ttlie iWan c( j^omrtw;

could not have endured. The expressions of
Jesus, which are found to be untrue literally,
are never discarded, for they are believed by
many to be true poetically and spiiituaUy.
New interpretations and new meanings can
constantly be found for doubtful passages.
Indeed, a most prosperous and powerful sect
has been built up in America within twenty
years, foimded upon an entirely new view of
the work and words of Jesus.
The use of metaphor, paradox and parable is
an attempt to make clear an uncertain thought
to one's self, and we indulge in it only when
we do not exactly know what we desire to
express. Metaphysics is valuable only to the
man whose feelings outmatch his intellect.
When he is cornered, such a one can always
retreat in a fog of words. A metaphysician is
an ink-fish. Such expressions as ^'liie Kingdom
of God," "the Son of Man,'' "the Child of
God," "the Gospel of Truth," "the Son of
God," "the World of Spuit," "redemption,"
"fallen man," "salvation," "damnation,"
all require an explanation, and are valuable
only as we read meanings into them, and
scarcely any two men will define them alike.
<( The chief advantage of metaphysics is that it

makes people think — ^they have to cudgel their
imaginations in order to comprehend what it
all means. And it means, for them, what they
think it means — ^all they can evolve out of it
or read into it.

^^^ROM the day that Jesus left

Mmmtf Jenisalem until he returned there

^ IH for the last time, was about a

mm year and six months.

0^^^ During this time he seemed to

have been wandering about the
country — ^preaching, talking, discoursing and
healing the sick.

The tone of his discourses grew more severe,
and life to him took on a sombre tinge. The
lightness and buoyancy of his spirit in degree
had departed ; the future seemed full of grim
forebodings.

He had broken loose from all home ties. The
advice which he so freely gave to others, he
had himself followed ^ ''The man who has
left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or
children, for the sake of liie Kingdom of God,
shall receive an hundred fold more now, and
in the world to come life eternal."
He told his disciples to carry neither scrip nor
purse, nor change of clothing, but when they

76 fgjft iWan ct i^emrtitf

wanted an3rthmg9 to enter into the nearest
house, gently and firmly saying, * ' Peace be
unto thee! " and there remain as long as they
wished, *^ for the laborer is worthy of his hire. "
<( This seems to be a reversal of his former
teaching, for when a man preaches and asks
for food and shelter because he preaches, and
declares ''the laborer is worthy. of his hire,"
he at that moment establishes a priesthood
that demands recompense and also immunity
from labor. The old, old idea of priestcraft
has come back by a new route! All things
move in circles.

It is very plain that Jesus could not have been
'a deep and accurate thinker. He knew'nothing
of mathematics, and the law of cause and
effect was outside of his realm. For commerce
^and trade he had only contempt. Architecture
and art he despised. He was a carpenter, but

^e never hear of his taking any pride in the
product of his hands. ''Come unto me all ye

^ labor and are heavy laden, and I wiU give
rest."

[e cared more for rest than work, and seemed
|to know nothing of the difference between
joyous work and joyless labor. He did not

tow that conmierce is the carrying of things

t!P&e iWan c( i^orrohtf 7?

from where they are plentiful to where they
are needed. He did n't know that business is
founded upon man's faith in man, and is the
real civilizer : missionaries only doing good as
they prepare the way for trade. With such
thinkers as that other great Jew, Spinoza,
Jesus does not for an instant compare in point
of intellect. Neither was his mind capable of
the daring reach made by such thinkers as
Leonardo, Newton, Herbert Spencer, John
Stuart Mill and Ernst Hseckel.
Where he greatly surpasses the men just
named is in his sublime faith in both himself
and his divine mission. He believed that he
was in absolute communion with the living
God, the Creator of the World. And this
great welling heart of love that went out to
all humanity, seeking to bring all men into
a relation of brotherhood, was at once his
supreme virtue, and his fault. For such faith
as his there is no frilfillment. To do away with
all property — and property is only stored-up
labor — ^and to break all earthly ties, we do not
now regard as sound philosophy. tifOM^fiC^
But Jesus was laboring under the iUuffifrchat
all great reformers labor imder : he expected
the great change to come quickly. ^'Lol the

78 fS^ jWan irfi^orrolMi

time is at hand and now is! " <( Nearly two
thousand years have passed, and mankind
is not yet ready to accept the doctrine of
peace on earth, good will to men. i /^^j^^
The nations that, somewhat iroMfUiyvare
called *' Christian," have the largc^ armies,
the most complicated and powerful machines
for destruction, and a stubborn and dogmatic
priesthood, almost as useless as that against
which Jesus preached, and which, in truth,
put him to death.

Those men of the French Revolution who
expected that when they did away with this,
why, then that would rule, were mistaken.
Mankind is part of Nature, and Nature works
by very slow evolution ; her silent changes are
scarcely perceptible to us in our little lives.
<( ** Leave all and follow me," nothing is of
value.

*' The end is at hand," said Jesus. But it was
not. ** Before you have gone over the cities of
Israel the Son of Man shall appear." He did
not seem to realize that the building up of a
Perfect Society would necessitate a Perfect
People, and that these require ages to evolve.
A Perfect Society, to be sure, will be a matter
of soul and right intent, all founded on the

tCI^ iWan of i^orrotog 7»

blessed idea of brotherhood, but beyond this it
will be the result of deliberate, mathematical
calculation. It will demand intellects liiat
consider sanitation, architecture, agriculture,
civil engineering, transportation and education
quite as valuable as faith in a Supreme Being
who does not coimt the hairs of your head,
nor note the sparrow's fall, since three-fourths
of all sparrows die in the nest or £Edl to the
earth and perish before liiey can fly.
The men who wiU bring about the Kingdom
of God on earth will believe liiat sewerage is
as necessary as prayer; and they will likewise
realize that the useftil work of Martha was just
as much the *^ better part " as that of Mary,
who merely sat and listened to the beautiftil
words of a beautiful teacher.
We believe in the woman who sweeps a room
to the glory of God.

More than this, when the Ideal arrives, it will
come through useful effort, and not through
contemplation. Starving India, lost in thought,
falls an easy prey to barbaric ''Christianity,"
active, alert and inventive. Work and love
will be the solvents — ^not faith, prayer and
preaching.

IB^iKon of ^orrobiK

^■■^^HERE has only been one Christian,
§W\ and he was a Jew," said Heine,
A 1 1 but this was irony. Christ could
^^^^ not be called a Christian J» The
Christianity that we know is a
composite institution, formed by the grafting
of Judaism upon Paganism, and this hybrid
faith by a series of strange t»incidences took
the name of the obscure but noble ascetic of
Galilee.

Paul was the real founder of Christianity — not
Jesus. Paul never saw Jesus and it was many
years after the death of the Savior before
Paul heard of him J> Paul was an educated
Jew — uid was a bit boastful of the fact. He
was versed in all the intricacies of Jewish Law,
and by habit was an expert in all the quip and
quibble which occupied the so-called learned
men of his time. He became convinced that
Jesus was the actual Messiah foretold by the
Jewish Prophets, and he set out to larove the
fact by use of exegesis and forensics.
The quality of his intellect is shown in the
remark, *' If Christ did not rise from the dead,
then is our religion vain." All the gentleness,
beauty and nobility of Jesus were as nothing to
St. Paul, unless he was the Messiah foretold

by Daniel, Ezekiel and Micah. St. Paul was a
sciolist, and it was sciolism that the spirit of
the hive then wanted. And curiously enough,
this cleaving to the letter, and all this wrangle
and contention about abstruse nothings, was
exactly the thing that Jesus had inveighed
against. So, essentially, Christianity, with its
hair-splitting differences, was what Jesus most
despised.

The newspapers nowadays having the largest
circulations are not necessarily the best, they
are simply those that most ably reflect the
intelligence — or the lack of it— of the people.
Great thmgs are only done by the minority.
H The zeal of St. Paul and his apostles gave
the people what they wanted, and Christianity
grew so popular that in three hundred years,
the Roman Emperor thought well to make
peace with it by adopting it ^ The fiat of
Constantine turned every Pagan temple into
a Christian church, and every Pagan priest into
a Christian preacher. The old Roman fable of
Orpheus and Eurydice, typifying the approach
of spring, was changed to Easter, and liie feast
of Ceres became the Eucharist. Names change
quickly, but humanity evolves so slowly liiat
we almost say it is forever the same.

82 ISfSt 0lm of S^wmOM

So Faulian Judaism and Pagan Rome joined
hands, and we have *' Christianity," with
its ten thousand variations and modifications,
tempered and twisted by custom and desire,
and the peculiarities of race prejudice. At the
last, men do what they want to do, or at least
what they can, and they name it what they
choose.

If the question were asked, *'Is liie religion
of Jesus feasible in practical life ? " the answer
would have to be ** We do not know^ — ^it has
never been tried." The nearest approach to
it to-day, perhaps, is manifest in the life of
Tolstoy, and since Tolstoy is a very rich man,
his methods are arbitrary, artificial and wholly
valueless. He plays at life. It is a laboratory
experiment as compared to actual manufacture
for the market. The two best exponents of
Tolstoyism in this coimtry are a successAil
Chicago lawyer and a man who lives the simple
life in a costly mansion in New York, with
many servants at his beck and call, and who
controls an estate of three thousand acres on
the Hudson. The richest monopolist in the
world is an orthodox Baptist.
We refer to London, New York and Chicago
as Christian cities — at least all these cities send

Wt^ jHan ot l»orroto< »»

millions of dollars and numerous missionaries
abroad to convert **the heathen," but we can
well imagine that the lowly Nazarene could
not at this time, by any stretch of his vivid
imagination, see his spirit reflected in these
places, any more than he saw his heart's desire
made manifest in Jerusalem of old.
^^^ LMOST eighteen months had gone
I ^^ by since Jesus and his disciples were
V(((h|I at Jerusalem. Their life of leisure
^^E, began to pall, and the ecstasy of

their religious faith was on the wane.
The simple fishermen Jesus had taken firom
their work, were needed at home. Soon their
little gardens and vineyards would be overrun
with weeds and brambles. The disciples were
growing restless— a hoUday that is continued
indefinitely ceases to be a holiday.
They were going back to their homes, the
promised Kingdom of God, to them, was not
in sight.

Jesus, much disturbed by their complaints,
sternly answered thus : ^^ No man who has put
his hand to the plough and looks back, is fit
for the Kingdom of Godl "
At another time he met a man and said in his
brief, direct way, " Follow thou me 1 " To this

the man replied, ** Master, suffer me first to
go and bury my father."
And Jesus answered, ^^Let the dead bury
their dead, but do you go and proclaim the
Kingdom of Gk>d."

Evidently he himself was growing impatient,
for where before he was proclaiming the joy
of ownmg nothmg, and urging everybody to
dispose of their homes and everjrthing in them,
and give the proceeds to the poor, he now
exclaims wearily, ^^The foxes have holes and
the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man hath not where to lay his head. ' '
There were monks before the time of Jesus,
but his thoughts of celibacy and poverty, and
of keeping one's self unspotted firom the
world — ^regarding the world and the world's
work as unholy and unclean — ^gave a powerful
impulse to monasticism.
Marriage was regarded by Jesus as purely an
expediency and soon to be done away with. In
heaven we would be sexless, and there would
be neither marriage nor giving in marriage.
<( It will thus be seen that to him the only
true Christian was a monk.
Our ideal of bravely living in the world and
helping to carry the world's burdens, had no

tgbe JWan ot l»orroto< sg

lodgment in the mind of Jesus. To him family
ties and the life of business and useful activity
would not win heaven.

^ ^Master, what must I do to inherit Eternal
Life ? " a young man asked.
And Jesus answered, *^Go sell all thy goods
and give to the poor, and follow me!"
Jesus knew that there was trouble ahead — '
he could hear the mutterings of the thunder.
^^ You may think I am come to bring peace
upon earth: I came not to bring peace, but
asword.*' ^^lamcometosetamanagainsthis
father, the daughter against her mother and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
H * * They shall put you out of the synagogues :
yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God service. '*
** If the world hate you, ye know it hated me
before it hated you."

He felt it was impossible to prove by reason
all he taught, and therefore he demanded fiuth,
and urged all his followers to ** believe."
Indeed, it is highly probable that he did not
have any clear idea himself about his mission.
One day it was a heavenly kingdom, the next
the perfect fulfillment was to take place here'
and now. Yet at all times he was clear on the

8g tCbe Man of i^orrototf

purity of life, and the thought of living close
toGk>d.

He experienced great anguish and was much
disturbed by the indifference of the people
and the ojpposition he met with. His enemies
said he was insane — ^^ possessed with devils."
<( Even the disciples became capricious, and
quarreled among themselves about who should
have precedence now and hereafter j^ Their
impatience communicated itself to the Master.
We become like those with whom we are
associated. Contact with querulousness begets
querulousness. Such a nerve-tension cannot
last forever — ^we must get relaxation in some
way ; through death at the most we can gain
rest! j^^

Jesus remembered the fate of John the Baptist
and possibly he was aware that now his tone
had become very much like that of John. If
he continued to preach, he knew that death
would be the result. He had little to live for
— ^he had broken with his family — he had no
wife, no property and no worldly ambitions.
Jerusalem seemed to be a very den of iniquity.
He would go there and do all in his power
to reclaim it from its faults and wickedness.
<( It is quite probable that his journey was

tCbe Mm of l^orrotng w

hastened by reports which came to him that
Antipas Herod was on his trail, believing that
he was the successor of John. Jesus had been
preaching within five miles of Tiberias, where
Antipas and Herodias reigned, and there was
danger of his being captured, taken across the
border and beheaded.

He did not value his life highly, but he was
not yet ready to fling it away — ^he would first
soimd a warning voice to the iniquitous and
corrupt Jerusalem, a voice that was to thunder
down the centuries, cause thrones to totter^
and affect the destinies of millions yet unborn.
He started southward, accompanied by various
disciples and faithful women, who ministered
to him.

He was bidding good-bye forever to his home»
kinsmen and beautiAil Galilee.

3MA6INE a Yorkshire man standing
in front of Saint Paul's Cathedral in
London, preaching the overthrow of
the Episcopal Clergy, and we have a
spectacle no more peculiar than that
of Jesus standing in the porch of the Temple
at Jerusalem, declaring of it, ''I tell you, there
shall not be one stone left upon another I"
The rich Pharisees who prayed on the street

»8 tCbe 0Um of i^orrolpg

comers, who affected a peculiar apparel, and
carried a holier-than-thou attitude, absolutely
disgusted Jesus. He ridiculed them all with
stinging contempt. The Roman publicans who
collected taxes — and therefore to Jesus were
really thieves — were fiar preferable to these
Jewish hypocrites.

He saw a poor widow approach the Temple
and drop into the box a farthing, and turning
to his disciples he said, *^She has cast in more
than they all, for the rest gave out of their
abundance, but she gave all she had.'*
The proud, richly robed priests pushed in pa^st
him, jostling him out of the way, and his eyes
followed them with pitying scorn. He was so
much of a theologian that he could not keep
away from the Temple, any more than can a
Protestant clergyman at Rome keep away
from Saint Peter's.

Jesus was very unhappy here at Jerusalem.
He was separated from all the world of valleys
and mountains and flowers and birds that he
loved so well. His days were passed in bitter
arguments. If he preached in the streets, he
was interrupted, and his discourse would end
in wordy warfare and often in sophistication.
<( Evidently he came to be regarded as more

tPbe 0Um id l»otroto< »»

or less of a nuisance by the self-important
priests, but he was scarcely known at all to
the people at large. Not a contemporary writer
mentions him, excepting that single allusion
by Josephus, and this is now believed to be an
interpolation.

There were mad mutterings by the officials
against his sharp criticisms. Nicodemus, who
was a lawyer of some note, and admired him
so much on his former visit that he came to
him secretly by night for an interview, once
defended him in an offhand way, and one of
the priests asked, suggestively, ^^ What I are
you, too, a Galilean? "
And another one passed the pleasantry along
by asking, ** Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth ? " At which, we can well imagine, all
laughed. This zealous Nazarene, to them, was
a proposition not to be taken seriously.
Jesus disliked the city proper so much that
he usually spent the night at one of the little
villages outside of the walls. At Bethany he
was on the most firiendly terms with Mary and
her sister Martha, and their brother Lazarus,
a plain, honest carpenter.
Mary, especially, though a woman of the town
sinner — appealed to him, and he prized

90 tgl&e jWan of i^ottiAM

her firiendship j^ Jesus had no standing in
respectable society, and we hear of his going
to the houses of lepers and being entertained
by them. It was at the house of one Simon, a
leper, where Mary entered, and in a moment
of adoration, bathed his feet with her tears and
wiped them with the hairs of her head. There
is no love like the love of a proscribed person.
<( When Simon reproved her, Jesus at once
came to her defence.

Once a mob had collected and were going to
kill a woman. They asked Jesus what they
should do with her, and he answered, ''Let
him who is without sin cast the first stone I ''
<( We can imagine how the mob slunk away
before this glorious presence.
He lifted the terrified woman to her feet and
tenderly asked, ''Has any one condemned
thee ? " And the accusers all having fled, she
looked around and then slowly replied, "No,
Master."

And he said, "Then neither do I condemn
thee — go and sin no more."
Very little headway was made in his preaching,
however — only the poor, the outcasts and the
despised came to him. Jerusalem went its
riotous way as of old — just as it does to-day.

g^ 0ian ttl l^orrohtf m

So we hear of Jesus going up oa the Mount
of Olives above the Temple, and in sorrow
and disappointment crying, "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou liiat killest the prophets and
stonest them that are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gatheretii her chickens
wider her wings, and ye would not! "
^■^^^HE exhibition of reUgious rancor
M^ r that at times forms a fierce hate,
■ 1 1 seems to be an essential part of
^^^^ the fabric of most religions. It is
^^^^ like the sexual impulse in those
animals which are docile except in the rutting
season. Intensity of any emotion may produce
an irritability that unships reason's rudder and
makes Ufe uncertain and unsafe.
We are all familifu* with people who love their
enemies, yet hold the balance txue by hating
their fiiends. If you are in sore distress, and the
hot breath of the pack is close upon your heels,
do not count on receiving succor and assistance
from the ones who profess a religion of love,
gentleness and magnanimity.
In argument the Jews have evw been bitter
and acrimonious when dealing with questions
which they consider as sacred. Even among

92 tgj&e 0Um ot i^orreW

themselves they have revealed little patience
in dispute. Jesus seemed to be a genuine Jew
in his mental attitude toward what he thought
wrong J^ Several of the Greek and Roman
philosophers understood perfectly that truth
is a point of view, and is to be found at the
end of a circle. Belief is largely a matter of
temperament, so Epictetus, for instance, was
lenient with opponents. Socrates once said,
^^No man is so thoroughly right as to be
entitled to say that others are totally wrong.
It is well to affirm your own truth, but it is not
well to condemn those who think differently."
QThis judicial quality was lacking in the
Nazarene — ^he was a thorough revolutionary in
his intensity. With simple folks, the ignorant,
the sick, weak or helpless he was gentle, but
when it came to those in authority, he was most
severe. He forgave the erring woman, but he
would not forgive these priests and lawyers.
C[**Woe unto you, ye lawyers! for ye lade
men with burdens grievous to be borne, and
ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one
of your fingers.

** Woe unto youl for ye build the sepulchers
of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
^^ Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will

Iffbe 0Uin df Jborrotatf

send them prophets and apostles and some of
them they shall slay and persecute ; that the
blood of the prophets which was shed from the
foundation of the world may be required of this
generation, from the blood of Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias, which perished between
the altar and the temple : verily I say unto you,
it shall be required of this generation.
" Woe xmto you, lawyers! for ye have taken
away the key of knowledge: ye entered not
in yourselves, and them that were entering in
ye have hindered. "

^■■^^HE tide of events was fast hastening
^M I Jesus to his doom — that is to say,
All to deathless fame. Had he been
^^^^/ left to himself, he would have
beaten his wings against the bars of
condition until discouraged, and then slipped
back to the sheltering obscurity of Galilee.
By his life he could not reform the world, and
tUs he surely saw — but through his death he
might accomplish much.
Jerusalem was too densely dull and dead in a
spiritual way to pay serious attention or take
note of his warnings — in Jerusalem he had
performed no wonders. And indeed it seems
be remained there but a little while altogether.

<( From the last time he left Galilee mitil his
death was only about six months, and much
of this period was occupied in excursions to
the villages round about. In these little places
Jesus and his disciples felt more at home.
Once they went as far away as Jericho, and
there made at least one convert, Zacchasus»
a little man who filled a big office, and he
turned over to them one-half of his goods for
the poor.

This circumstance encouraged them so much
that when they again went back to Jerusalem
they prepared a demonstration. Jesus rode a
she-ass, followed by her colt, and the disciples
ran before and strewed palms in the way, and
called aloud, '^Hosannal hosannal Blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord!"
They proclaimed the rider as **King of the
Jews.*'

Doubtless this created some stir, and we can
imagine that the little procession was looked
at by many people in the amused way that we
regard the drums and cries of the Salvation
Army. In truth, Jesus and his disciples i@(|rmed
the first Salvation Army, and it is the avowed
claim of the leaders that the modem ^'aiiny "
is patterned after the original one at Jarufalem.

tKbe jWan of i^orrohx 95

<( In many cities the Salvation Army has been
voted a nuisance, and in certain instances the
police have placed the leaders under arrest.
Only a few years ago in England, such people,
who did not work under the auspices of the
established church, paid the penalty for public
preaching by an ignominious death.
The high priests of Jerusalem did not regard
the brilliant and daring young preacher and
his noisy disciples amusing at all — ^they were
a menace. Jesus desired to disrupt Judaism,
and if possible he would place himself at the
head of the new order I Was he not, even
now being hailed as **King of the Jews?"
<( Fear and hate spring from the same soil —
this man must be suppressed for the safety of
society. It is a curious fact that most religious
leaders regard themselves and their institutions
as the corner-stone of civilization.
In February of what is now our year 88, the
chief priests met in council, and the question
was discussed as to what should be done with
this Galilean disturber. And we hear of one
of the speakers stubbornly putting forth the
suggestive thought : ^ ^ It is expedient that one
man should die for the entire people." That
is to say, for the good of society, Jesus should

be put to death. <( The high priest at this
time was Caiaphas, appointed by the Rmnan
Procurator, Valerius Gratus. This office seems
to have been merely nominal, for the actual
high priest of the Jews in Jerusalem was
Annas, sometimes called Hanan. Annas held
no office, yet was regarded as the ruler, and
evidently named the legal high priest, for
Caiaphas was his son-in-law, and five of his
sons filled the office in turn.
Annas was a successful politician.
It was a son of this Annas who caused James,
**the Lord's brother," to be executed by
being stoned, which was the death probably
at first provided for Jesus. Society has always
reserved for itself the right to destroy those
who threaten its existence. This is as much
so now as then. Annas was logical and right
firom the standpoint of civilized Christianity.
Jesus was an anarchist — ^he was placing his
own individuality above the law. He quoted
the law, and then added a law of his own,
saying, "But I say unto you *♦♦♦*'
The Mosaic Law provides a penalty of death
for any who seek to overthrow it. Law, like
capital, is timid. Of course the political priests
quaked and trembled.

Annas ordered that the warrant of arrest be
issued. Hearing of the danger, Jesus went to
a town called Ephraim, a day's journey from
the city of Jerusalem j^ The Feast of the
Passover was about to occur, so the enemy
quietly waited, knowmg he would soon return,
as was his custom.

Jesus and his little band of followers had often
been threatened before, and they thought the
trouble would shortly subside and that they
might go along as usual.
After a few days at Ephraim, they returned to
Jerusalem to attend the Feast of the Passover.
The disciples were ftdl of zeal — ^they thought
**the kingdom" was at hand j* They were
like John Brown at Harper's Ferry, imagining
that to simply strike the match would be
enough to start the conflagration. But for
himself Jesus was troubled and in sore doubt.
<( It was decided to enter the city in a bold
manner, and this they did, the disciples going
ahead and crying aloud, ^^Hosanna to the Son
of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord. "

^^ Master, rebuke thy disciples," advised a
well-meaning and kindly-disposed Pharisee.
But Jesus reftised to interfere in any way with

»» die jWaw iA J^ovnOM

their exuberance. <( The officers of the chief
priests could then very easily have arrested
Jesus, but to do so at this public time might
create undue excitement. Tlie dty was fiill of
visitors who had come to attend the feast, not
to witness an execution.
Four days passed and Jesus came regularly to
the Temple and preached on the steps and in
the porches. The chief priests held another
council at the house of Caiaphas. Some of
them hesitated about taking the step, but
now it was decided to arrest the man at once,
and do it surely, qiiietly and quickly, so as
not to create a public scene. There was really
great danger that an open arrest and a public
trial might be used by Jesus to bring about a
revolutionary climax — his eloquent tongue
and noble presence must not be given too much
chance to show their power I It was therefore
decided to seize the man the next night, and
to this end detectives of the priests bribed
Judas, one of the disciples, who had some
personal grievance against Jesus, to guide the
arresting party to the place where Jesus was
to be found. It seems that Jesus was not so
well known to the police but that he had to
be pointed out. And this Judas agreed to do

Wst iWan iA i^orroliK »»

for a trivial amount, ^ ^ thirty pieces of silver, ' '
or about five dollars.

Only a few days before at the house of Simon
the leper, Mary had taken costly spikenard
and anointed Jesus, and Judas asked, ** Why
was not this ointment sold for three hundred
I>ence and given to the poor?" Jesus reproved
him, saying, '^ The poor ye always have with
you; but me ye have not always," and the
rebuke had rankled in the heart of the disciple.
<( When we quarrel with a man we lose all
faith in his mission. Judas had entirely lost
faith and thought the whole thing was going
into dissolution very soon. ^^ The Kingdom of
God " was to him a failure and he had better
get out of it all he could, and at the same
time save himself from danger. So he turned
'^ state's evidence," an action that has made
his name the most easily remembered of all
the twelve, and handed it down to posterity
as the sjoionjon of all that is detestable and
treacherous.

The person who deserts at the time of danger
is a common type, easily understood. And
that any man could have twelve disciples for
three years, and none doubt, deny, or betray
him to his enemies, would be a miracle indeed.

100 die jWaw iA i^orrohtf

^^VVT was night. Jesus had supped with

^M m his disciples for the last time. They

^Vl had passed beyond the walls of the

g^M city, and gone noiselessly through the

vaUey and over the brook of Cedron.

Within a little park called the Garden of

G^thsemane, dose to the home of the £Either

of Mark the disciple, at the foot of the Mount

of Olives, they rested with the intention of

passing the night there.

The weary disciples had disposed themselves

under the trees and were asleep.

The heart of Jesus was heavy — he was sore

oppressed and God's gift of sleep was never

again to be his.

He went a little way apart to pray. The deep
presentiment of coming peril was upon him —
his psychic spirit intuitively realized that at
that moment an armed force was marching
toward him with hostile intent.
In a moment of seeming weakness, he cried
aloud, in agonizing tones, '^ Father, if it be
thy will, let this cup pass from me I "
And even as he spoke there was the flare of
torches seen through the trees and the steady
tramp of soldiers could be plainly heard.
C( Judas advanced at the head of the troop

W^ iWan of l»orrotoi8; loi

and cried out in a voice that ill-concealed his

agitation, '^Hail, Babbil*'

Jesus moved forward to meet him and asked,

•'Whom seek ye?''

* * We seek Jesus, the Nazarene I ' '

** I am he," was the firm reply.

Judas stepped forward and kissed him on the

cheek, which was the signal of identification

agreed upon with the soldiers.

Malchus, a servant of the high priest, and

Annas, probably the son of Annas the actual

ruler, proceeded to bind the hands of Jesus

behind him. Peter, who was suddenly aroused

from sleep, seeing the Master in the hands of

the soldiers rushed in, and with a sword struck

at Malchus.

Jesus reproved Peter and before the surprised

soldiers could capture the belligerent disciple,

he slipped away into the darkness and was gone.

<( Mark, wrapped in a mantle stood by. The

soldiers tried to seize him, but he struggled,

freed himself and fled, sacrificing his robe.

<( The disciples now had all forsaken the Man

of Sorrows — ^he was alone with his enemies, a

prisoner.

The march was taken up for the house of

Annas. It was a little after midnight when

they reached there, and evidently they were

expected, for Annas at once held court and

questioned the prisoner.

Peter and John followed afar off, but now

entered with the rabble. The night had grown

cold and Peter approached a brazier of coals

in the hallway to warm his quaking form.

Evidently he was indiscreet enough to talk;

for a maid standing near asked, ''Are you not

one of them ? — ^thy speech betrayeth thee I "

<( And Peter denied that he had anything to

do with Jesus, declaring with an oath, ''I

know not the maul "

Annas, having satisfied himself that they had

gotten the right man, and not having the legal

power to condemn him, sent him away to his

son-in-law, Caiaphas, the high priest.

Here he was also expected and two witnesses

were ready to swear that they heard him say,

'' I am able to destroy the Temple of God

and to build it in three days."

To speak disrespectfully of the Temple was,

according to the Jewish Law, the same thing

as to blaspheme Jehovah.

At this place Jesus was given the privilege of

examining witnesses and also of contradicting

them by his own testimony, but he was silent.

JE%t jWan of l»orrotoi8; los

His lofty courage had now come to him in
Aill measure. He knew that nothing he could
say or do would save him, and in fact he had
resolved to let the proceedings take their own
course. ^'As a sheep dumb before its shearer,
so opened he not his mouth."
By his silence he admitted his guilt.
There was only one thing to do. The Law
provided that any one who tried to disrupt
the Jewish religion should die. With one voice
the company who made up the Sanhedrin, or
court, declared him guilty of blasphemy and
fixed the penalty as death.
But before the sentence could be carried out it
must be ratified by the Roman Government.
Now Pontius Pilate, the Procurator, was not a
part of the conspiracy, and there was no other
way to approach him excepting in the regular
order of business. They could go to his office
early in the morning and then demand that he
should hear the case. If they could make it
appear that he had plotted against the State,
pretending to be ** The King of the Jews,"
and therefore in actual insurrection against the
Roman Government which did not recognize
any king save the Emperor Tiberius, why, then
Pilate would endorse their indictment and

the rest of the proceedings would be easy.
<( It lacked several hours of daylight and
Jesus was left in charge of the soldios, to be
taken to the Judgment Hall of Pilate early
in the morning.

The priests and all the other members of the
court had now gone and were sleeping in their
comfortable beds.

As extra reward for their night service, strong
drink had been given out among the soldiers,
and when the priests went away, all dignity
and decency vanished.

Jesus was bound hand and foot with cords that
cut deep into his sensitive flesh ^ There is
always a temptation among brutal men to take
advantage of a prisoner. One soldier struck
the cheek of the Master with his open hand.
Others did likewise and still others spat in his
face. They platted a crown of twigs and set it
on his head. They hailed him in mock respect
as ^'Rabbi, Rabbi!" and called him ^^King
of the Jews," falling down upon their knees
and worshiping him in derisive insult.
Through this drunken riot Jesus spake no
word, enduring all in the majestic silence that
had been his throughout the farcical trial.
The night gradually passed, the stars slunk

away, the heavens grew bright in the east.
The soldiers were tired out with their revehy
and were sitting or lying around in drunken
stupor, careless of their prisoner, having fully
satiated their cruelty.

The prisoner's face burned with fever, his Ups
were parched, his eyes beamed with a strange,
unnatural brightness. He knew that this day
would be his last on earth ; never again would
he and his disciples gather together in joyous
conuradeship and live the life of love and faith ;
the dream of universal brotherhood for him
was past, but by no outward sign did he reveal
the inward thoughts and emotions that surged
through his brain.

A new guard appeared and the others were
dismissed. They unbound the feet of Jesus
so he could walk. His arms were still pinioned
behind him. The order to march was given
and the guard started down the stony street,
the prisoner in their midst.
^^^^ S the squad of soldiers, dragging the
\^r\ prisoner, marched along through the
VjHhH streets, a curious crowd collected
^l^^/m and followed after to the great stone

structure that always reminded the
Jews of their subserviency to the Romans.

log die jWaw c( i^orrotog

<( It was early in the morning, but Pilate was
at his post. He was apprised of what was the
trouble — ^a Jewish renegade from Galilee had
oome down to Jerusalem, claiming to be the
'* King of the Jews." He had been arrested,
and was now at the door — ^would the Grovemor
consent to listen to the charges against the
man who had set himself against the Roman
Grovemment and defied the Emperor ?
Pilate smiled in derision, but according to the
demands of the gathering crowd, came out
and mounted the Gabbatha or Pavement that
faced the temple courts ^ These Jews were
continually quarreling and bringing their racial
quibbles to him for adljustment.
Twenty years later Gallio, a brother of Seneca,
was annoyed in the same way : the Jews had
captured a little man, Paul by name, and had
brought him to the Proconsul for judgment,
and Gallio said, ^ ^ If it were a matter of wrong
or injustice, O ye Jews, reason would that I
should bear with you. But if it be a question
of words or names, and of your law, look ye
to it, for I will be no judge of such matters."
And then the historian adds, ^^And he drave
them from the judgment seat."
Pilate was sorely tempted to drive the mob

tE^t Man td i^orroliK io7

away. Here were Jews who had captured a
Jew, and now wanted a Roman to punish hun.
Pilate knew full well that the Jews were not
so zealous and jealous in their loyalty to Rome
as to punish a Jew who was not in sympathy
with the Roman occupancy. When he himself
before had tried to apprehend Jews who had
been guilty of treason, he found such were
always protected, shielded and aided to escape
by their countrjrmen.

Pilate scorned the clamor against Jesus, and
taking the prisoner, retired into the Judgment
Hall and shut the door.
Here he questioned Jesus — ^no witnesses were
present, and we know nothing concerning the
specific conversation that passed between the
two. In any event, Pilate was quite favorably
disposed toward the man, and when he came
out he said to the leaders, ** I find no fault in
him."

At this there was at once a mighty clamor of
accusation, instigated by the priests who were
scattered among the mob. We know a Uttle
about how the mob spirit grows and how
stupidly blind its immature judgments always
are. ** He calls himself King of the Jews! "
** He refuses to pay tribute to Caesar."

108 die jWaw iA J^ovniM

** Cradfy him— crucify him I " <( Pilate asked,
^'Art thou indeed King of the Jews ? '*
Jesus ignored the question, but cahnly said
without a tremor of fear, ** My kingdom is
not of this world."

Pilate was not a weak man — ^he was a genuine
Roman, and in conflict with ignorance and
stupidity had shown before this, and revealed
later, that he had a will of his own — ^he could
strike and strike hard when in his opinion the
occasion justified it. The record of his reign
is told at length by Josephus, and Josephus,
being a Jew, would not be likely to gloss the
truth concerning a man whom he considered
as the tool of a usurping government.
Pontius Pilate was not a philosopher — for nice
distinctions in ethics he had no head, and for
religious difierences he had a most profound
contempt. To him Jesus was only a Jew who
had offended the Jews, and while he would
save the man if he could, yet he was in Judea
to preserve peace, and rather than risk a riot
or seriously ofiend the people, he would let
them have their way. Pilate's capitol was at
Caesarea, and he only came down to Jerusalem
during the feasts. He never had with him a
force sufficient to quell an insurrection, even

W^ iWan of l^orroliK io»

had he desu*ed to do so ^ The poUcy of all
colonial governors is now, and was with the
Romans, to allow the people to execute their
own laws, excepting where vital issues are at
stake, and the sovereignty in danger.
Pilate was a diplomat. He had been a soldier
before the influence of Sejanus had elevated
him to the governorship of Judea, and life to
a Roman soldier was cheap. Yet the dignity
and poise of Jesus appealed to him. Finding
that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate put forth
the excuse of lack of jurisdiction and said the
man should be sent to the Galilean Governor
for trial.

Antipas Herod, tetrarch of Galilee, happened
to be in Jerusalem at this time and Jesus was
sent to him, followed by the priests J^ Herod
was ''glad to see him," and asked him to
'* perform some wonders," but he agreed with
the priests that the offenses were committed
in Jerusalem, and so here was where the man
should answer. In this they were right, and
Pilate was forced to retreat from his position.
<( Antipas Herod hated Pilate, and he would
not free him from his disagreeable dilemma.
Herod's share of his father's dominions had
been only the provinces of GaUlee and Peraea,

110 Wbt iWaw td J^otttSM

and here was a brawny Roman soldier without
a drop of royal blood in his veins, given, by
the influence of a court fiivorite of Tiberius,
over three provinces of Palestine and
revek in the great white Prastorium
built by Herod the Great ! This explains the
hatred.

But another expedient suggested itself to the
Procurator. It was the custom at the Feast of
the Passover for the authorities to pardon one
Jewish prisoner, and now if they would let
this man go free Pilate would be glad. He
suggested that they release Jesus, but their
stony hearts were dead to pity and they cried
aloud for Barabbas, a robber and an assassin,
then in prison.

Pilate, following precedent, was compelled to
release the man for whom the people called,
so Barabbas was given his liberty and a lasting
place in history.

The mob grew and the priests and Pharisees
were bawling out in loud tones the supposed
transgressions of Jesus. It is a curious fact that
whenever a man is accused of one thing, there
are always plenty of people who assiune that
he must therefore be guilty of various other
crimes and misdemeanors. The cry of ^ ^ Crucify

gPbe Man of S^mtiAoi m

him, crucify him/' again rang out, and it was
taken up and echoed back and forth by those
who never heard of the man before. A mob
demands blood — it is demonism unmasked —
only death will satisfy it I
One more chance was left to Pilate. It was
a most desperate and brutal thing to do, but
the experiment might work. If Jesus were
publicly whipped then and there, the sight of
his quivering flesh and the blood streaming
down hi^ bare back, might appease these cruel
priests, so they would deem his punishment
severe enough and let him then go free.
Pilate gave the order that the prisoner should
be scourged. The Roman soldiers, impassive
as machines, tore the clothing from the man,
and a brawny lanista stepped forward with a
whip made of leather ; the thong sang through
the air and fell upon the white flesh of the
helpless, crouching victim. The scourging was
continued till Pilate ordered it stopped for
fear of killing the; sufferer.
But the bellowing mob still cried, ^'Crucify
him! Crucify him! "

Pilate had only scorn and scathing derision for
the priests. **Jews, behold your king!" he
called out in ironical tones. And the answer

ii« JE%t jWaw of i^orrohtf

was, *'We have no king but Cassar — crucify
him, crucify him! '' Then they added, ** We
have a law and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God! "
<( Before this the Jews had lodged complaints
against Pilate at Rome, and now if he let this
man go free, who was accused of plotting to
overthrow the State, there would be frirther
charges, Pilate must protect himself ^'Take
ye him and crucify him — I find no &ult in
hunl''

Crucifixion was exclusively a Roman form of
execution, reserved only for thieves, brigands
and those guilty of unnameable crimes. The
Romans used the sword for political ofienses,
or the victim was allowed to kill himself. But
crucifixion was something else. It was similar
to the custom now in vogue in some Christian
countries of hanging a man by the neck with
a rope until he is dead. Soldiers we shoot, but
those whom we seek to disgrace, we hang.
The Jewish Law provides that one who seeks
to destroy Judaism shall be stoned — ^it does
not anywhere provide for crucifixion.
The plotting priests, in their wily wisdom,
demanded that Jesus should be crucified, for
this form of execution would throw the onus

on the Romans. The Jews blamed the Romans
for killing Jesus, and the Romans blamed the
Jews. Both were right— and wrong — ^it was
mob-law that did the deed, sanctioned by a
Governor who could not prevent it, or at least
thought he could not. The instigation was the
work of the chief priests, lawyers and the sects
known as the Pharisees and Sadducees. All
these Jesus had grievously offended and they
had their revenge.

In passing, it is well enough to note that mobs
are led, almost without exception, by citizens
of prommence and worth. A man who has no
influence in a community cannot get even a
mob following J^ The man who hypnotizes
a mob, practices hypnotism more or less as a
business. He is a leader of men.
The exact point where mob-rule begins and
government ends, is hazy and indistinct. The
jury is often profoundly moved by the shouts
of the crowd, and the judge who has not one
ear close to the groimd is a rare exception.
Most legal executions are now, and ever have
been, to appease the mob. When the people
cry, ** Crucify him, crucify him! " the courts
have to obey. **Law is the crystallization of
public opinion," said Lord Brougham.

Courts hold their sessions on sufirance of the
mob that elects them. The difference between
a legal murder and a judicial execution has
not, so tar, been clearly defined.
We are told that a lie always requires other
lies to bolster it. This maxim is equally true
of all departure from truth, reason and right
One misdeed sows the seed of another. The
number of murders, judicial and otherwise,
that have grown out of this murder we are
here considering, would stagger mathematics
to express j> The Crusades, the Inquisition,
countless wars and &natical sacrifices trace to
that Judean mob.

. ILATE'S decision was no sooner
1 made known than a loud howl of
I satis&ction went up from the mob.
I The priests and Pharisees had
everything ready; for as in legal
procedures the p'ocess is always
well lubricated, so do the mob leaders always
know beforehand just what they are going to
do. It looks like chance, but it is not.
Pilate had gone. A detachment of soldiers
was standing near by with two thieves whom
they were about to execute — probably they
were detained so as to take a third victim! A

that Judean

cross was at hand — ^simply one rough plank

nailed upon another m the form of a letter T.

C( This cross was balanced on the back of the

Nazarene — each of the thieves carried a cross

— and the command was given to march.

It was now near noon — ^the sun was burning

not. They had not gone far before Jesus fell,

fainting imder the burden j^ Sleeplessness,

suffering, fasting, all combined to have their

way, and tired Nature flagged.

The man was roughly lifted to his feet and

once more the march began — ^the Nazarene

stumbled forward, reeled and fell.

Every Roman soldier had a superstitious dread

of carrying the cross— it was the mstrument

of death, and part of the victim's punishment

was that he had to bear this sjrmbol of his

shame, disgrace and degradation.

In England, not so many years ago, the man

to be hanged had to carry his coffin, but this

led to so many accidents that later the culprit

rode in a flat-topped cart, seated on the box

that was so soon to hold his body.

As Jesus could not carry the cross and the

soldiers would not, they seized a countryman,

Simon the Cyrenian, by name, whom they

met on the way, and compelled him to bear

116 g|ie 0lan iA J^otttAM

the disgraceful burden. Simon used often to
teU of this terrible experience afterward — ^he
fully thought he himself was to be executed.
<( Much of the disgraceful insult of the night
before was now repeated. Jesus was brutally
struck, spit upon, scoffed and scorned. During
it all he bore himself proudly, silently, and
without resentment or complaint.
A march of a mile over a rocky road, much of
it uphill and the crowd reached Gk>lgotha,
''the place of the skull. " The crosses were laid
upon the ground. The victims were offered, as
was the custom, a strong narcotic that would
stupefy them, lessen the pain and also make
them easier to manage, rendering resistance
difficult.

Jesus touched his lips to the bitter drink and
put it away — ^he would endure the worst that
his enemies could inflict.
Each victim was stripped of all his clothing
and stretched out upon the cross. Nails were
driven through the hands and feet. A strong
cord passing under the arms of each victim
and over the top helped to carry the weight,
so the nails would not tear through the flesh.
H Shallow holes were dug. The three crosses
were uplifted and rocks piled around the bases

(gfte jWan of j^mtotui ii7

to keep them in place. Jesus was in the middle
and a thief on either side.
Pilate had written on a board these words,
** This is the King of the Jews," and sent it,
by the soldiers, to be placed over the head of
Jesus.

There was something most ironical in this
inscription. Pilate hated these fanatical Jews
and hated them more for this firightfiil deed
they had forced upon him. He would have the
last word — they had killed their King !
The chief priests complained of this inscription
— ^they declared it should have read, "This
man called himself the King of the Jews."
But Pilate said, **What I have written, I
have written." He would not erase or change
the wording in any way : let them have the
honors — ^and the disgrace.
All of the disciples but John had disappeared.
He remained in the distance with Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and a band of faithfiil women.
/^s the excitement of the mob died away and
the onlookers grew accustomed to the terrible
sight before them, John and the women came
cautiously forward.

One account says that Jesus recognized them,
and seeing that John and his mother were

118 Wbt 0Um of i^actiAM

near together, as they approached, he said to

the disciple, ** Behold thy mother," and then

to his mother, '* Woman, behold thy son I"

This seems hardly possible — Jesus would not

imperil his friends by recognizing them. The

agony for all of these was the greater because

they could not express it.

These friends were helpless. The soldiers were

seated at the foot of their victims, waiting for

them to die. They had divided the clothing of

the crucified men among them and were now

casting lots for it, as the clothing of the victims

was a part of the executioners' perquisites.

C( The crowd around was hostile — there was

no sympathy for the sufierers — ^the mob had

seen such sights before and had grown to relish

them. The knowing ones pointed Jesus out

and gave parts of his supposed history. ** He

called himself the Son of Grod I He came to

save others, himself he cannot save I "

'^ He said he could destroy the Temple and

build it up in three days."

** Let us see whether Elqah will come to save

himi"

A storm came up— -the clouds grew dark and

dense.

The strained position produced a terrible pain,

(gfte Man of §^onotxa ii»

yet this torture Jesus might have endured, but
his spirit was wrung by the insult, stupidity
and ingratitude of those he saw before him.
C( Had he lived in vain ?
An awful agony wrenched his soul. He cried
aloud, " My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me I "

Consumed by a burning thirst, he begged for
drink. A soldier, with more pity in his heart
than we expect to see, saturated a sponge
with vinegar and water, the drink the soldiers
carried for themselves, and putting it on a reed,
reached it up to the lips that had voiced so
many words of tenderness and love — that had
said, ** He who giveth even so much as a cup
of cold water in my name, him will I not cast
out."

A person with dull and sluggish temperament
might exist on the cross for two or three days.
But Jesus with his exquisite capacity for pain,
and his delicate and sensitive nature, could not
long endure such agony.
For three hours he had hung there. He now
felt the sleep of death creeping into his veins
his head drooped forward. Below he saw the
soldiers ; all aroimd surged the waiting mob,
watching his death struggles J^ He aroused

180 (K&e jiton e( i^onrctoat

himself and prayed, ''Father, forgive them,

for they know not what they do I ''

Another imeonscious struggle — ^Nature trying

to gain her freedom I

Again he spoke — ** Father, into thy hands I

commend my spirit I "

That proud head fell forward j^ The form

relaxed, swayed, and hung limp and still upon

the cross.

A soldier with a spear pierced his side but

there was no response of life.

Death, in pity, had set the captive free.

So here endeth dQbe iMati of i^ortotM, being
a Little Journey to the Home of Jesus of
Nazareth, by Elbert Hvbbard. A sincere
attempt to depict the teachings, life and
times, and with truth linm the personality of
the Man of Sorrows. Done into a book by
The Roycrofters at East Aurora, N. Y. , 1906
years from the birth of the Man of Sorrows.

r 1

n